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http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/n...ml&sSheet=/portal/2005/07/31/ixportaltop.html
Police investigate Saudi link to London attacks
By Andrew Alderson, David Harrison and Bruce Johnston in Rome
(Filed: 31/07/2005)
London under attack
Scotland Yard is investigating evidence that the two waves of terrorist attacks on London this month may have been masterminded from Saudi Arabia.
The Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist squad has learnt that Hussain Osman, 27, one of the suspects for the second failed attacks, called a number in Saudi Arabia hours before his arrest in Rome on Friday. He was believed to be making only the most vital calls because he feared his mobile phone was being tracked by investigators.
An Italian police officer holds up photographs of Hussain Osman
In an unconfirmed development, the Saudi Arabian authorities are understood to be investigating the possibility that the attacks were planned by extremists there.
Senior officials at Scotland Yard believe there are no links in Britain between the two cells responsible for the July 7 bombings which killed 56 people and the failed suicide attacks two weeks later. But one senior source said that the anti-terrorist squad is investigating links between the two cells and "foreign camps" of terrorists.
They are also inquiring into claims that, like the July 7 bombers, some of the July 21 attackers travelled extensively abroad shortly before the attacks. Police believe that although the July 21 terrorists expected to die, they made plans in case the bombs failed or their mission was aborted.
One security official said: "Most of the suspects did not use mobile phones registered to them and neither did they use land lines. Therefore they must have had some sort of contingency plan and probably had help from sympathisers. This tells us that they must have had some training, so the question now is by whom and where did they receive that training...."