Bath full of explosives found at 'operational base'

A bath filled with explosives was found at a house in Leeds that was the "operational base" for the London suicide bombers. The discovery of a such a large amount of high explosives has shocked detectives and has raised fears of further attacks.

The substantial quantity of  high-grade explosives has reinforced suspicions the men were linked to a wider network, capable of obtaining such material, and anti-terrorist officers and the security services were seeking to establish the source  - possibly of military origin.

Tracing the source of the explosive and how it reached Leeds will help police ascertain whether an al Qaeda '"guiding hand" or bomb-maker was involved with the group.

"Those people who died were clearly expendable. What the police are searching for now are what are termed the 'LBAs' - left to bomb again," said one terrorism expert yesterday.

The news came as anti-terrorist officers hunted for a fifth member of the terrorist gang thought to be on the run in Britain. It is unclear what role the suspect played.
Police today raided a residential address in the town of Aylesbury, about 64km northwest of the British capital.

A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police Service, which is coordinating the hunt, denied a report by Sky News television that they had made a fresh arrest during the raid.

Detectives disclosed yesterday that four suicide bombers - all British-born men unknown to the security forces - carried out the Tube and bus bombs that killed at least 52 people.

Three of the terrorists have been identified as Shahzad Tanweer, 22, Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, and Hasib Mir Hussain, 18.

Detectives, as part of the investigation codenamed Operation Thesis, traced the gang to the Leeds and Dewsbury area in West Yorkshire, from where the bombers travelled to London on Thursday morning.

Raids on homes in the Leeds area yesterday discovered what a local MP yesterday described as an operational base for terrorists. It is understood that anti-terrorist officers found a bath filled with explosives at a house in the Hyde Park Road area of Burley, Leeds.

The huge quantity of explosive found, along with other explosives left in a hire car used by the bombers and abandoned at Luton train station, has led to fears that they may have made further bombs.

Greg Mulholland, MP for Leeds North West, said: "It seems that this is an operating base for them, rather than any of their homes. It's not a question of this being a family home.

"I understand this is where the material may have been stored."

Analysing the explosives

Samples of the explosives from all the bomb scenes, together with those from Leeds and the car found at Luton were undergoing detailed forensic examination for clues as to their origin.

The material can be compared with databases of commercial and military explosives and those used in other Islamic terrorist incidents around the world.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, yesterday denied reports that the explosive was believed to have come from the Balkans or Eastern Europe. Terrorism experts said that region was just one of many where Islamic extremists operate and which could have been the source.

Andy Oppenheimer, an expert on terrorism and explosives for Jane's Defence Weekly said: "While the Balkans is a prime area as a black market source, there remains the possibility it might also have come from Iraq or even the Chechens."

The explosive is most likely to have been smuggled into Britain through a sea route rather than an airport. It could have been shipped in a sealed container or in the framework of a vehicle to avoid explosive sniffing machines or dogs.

Military explosives are favoured by terrorists because they are stable, easy to handle and easily available on the blackmarket.

The most notorious is Czech-made Semtex, of which the IRA obtained large quantities during the 1980s. "It is the ultimate explosive of choice," Mr Oppenheimer said.

"A very small amount can cause a very large explosion."

The fact that the London bombs were said to be up to 10lb each in weight tends to discount Semtex.

Other possible varieties include the American made C4 - used in other al Qaeda-linked attacks such as the bombings in Bali in October 2002 and HMX, the type stolen in Iraq last October.

Mr Oppenheimer stressed it was just as likely that the bombers could have used ordinary explosives obtained from somewhere in Britain - such as a building site or quarry.

Although a trained bomb-maker could have been involved, instructions for making bombs are readily available on the internet and since the bombs were most likely to have been self-detonated, there would have been little need for complicated timers.

- THE INDEPENDENT