More on this story. “Al-Qaida appears to claim Glasgow attack,” from the Associated Press, October 24:
The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq has said his group is focused on attacks outside the country in a new audiotape in which he seemed to claim responsibility for the June 2007 attack on Glasgow International Airport.
Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, did not specifically mention the Scottish airport in the nearly 45-minute interview posted on the Internet on Thursday.
But he said his group carried out its “last operation in Britain, a good part of which was launched on the airport and the rest was not carried out due to a mistake made by one of the brothers.”
Two men were arrested and charged with conspiring to murder after a burning Jeep loaded with gas cylinders was driven into Glasgow airport in June 2007. A day earlier, police discovered two cars packed with explosives in central London.
British authorities indicated at the time that they thought the plotters may have had links with al-Qaida.
Masri said that a few days before the airport attack, one of the plotters “got in touch and informed [al-Qaida in Iraq] that the operation is about to happen.”
Many terrorism analysts have expressed concern that well-trained fighters from al-Qaida in Iraq and other Islamic extremists groups in the country could seek to export violence to places like Western Europe and Afghanistan as Iraq becomes more stable….