The Telegraph: Eton College and The Ritz hotel were on a hit list of British targets found on the dead body of a senior al-Qaeda leader according to reports. The high-profile targets were found on the body of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the network's commander in East Africa, after he was shot dead last week in Somalia.Discovery of the list prompted security services to hold a summit with Government ministers and warn the school. America's security services have also issued a warning to major hotel chains.
Mohammad was on the United States' list of 26 most wanted terrorists and had a £3.5 million bounty on his head for his role in the 1998 bomb attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224. He is also believed to have masterminded attacks on the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa and a missile strike on an Israeli charter flight in 2002.
He was a skilled forger and disguise artist and had evaded American intelligence officers for 13 years with an array of at least 18 aliases. The 38-year-old Comoran was shot dead by Somali government troops last week after he refused to stop at a roadblock in Mogadishu.
Government officials in Somalia at first were unaware they had killed one of the world's most wanted men and he was unceremoniously buried, before being exhumed for DNA tests when documents suggested his identity. An intelligence source told the Sun newspaper: "Eton and the Ritz were on a list of what are assumed to be potential UK targets.
"There was no indication that an attack was looming - but given his track record, questions have to be asked about why such a list should be in his possession. "I understand that the school has been spoken to."
Somalia is considered a safe haven for al-Qaeda, and training camps have grown up unhindered in the country's war torn chaos.
No comments:
Post a Comment