British terror plotters sought 'atomic bomb'

ISN SECURITY WATCH (Thursday, 23 March: 14.17 CET) – British prosecutors say that seven men on trial for suspected links to al-Qaida and plotting bomb attacks in Britain had attempted to buy an atomic bomb from Russian mafia in Belgium, news agencies reported.

According to prosecutors, Salahuddin Amin, 31, contacted an intermediary about buying a radioisotope bomb and was directed to Russian mafia in Belgium, London's Central Criminal Court heard on Wednesday.

The seven men were arrested in raids in and around London in March 2004. They men, all British citizens of Pakistani background, are charged with plotting bomb attacks on nightclubs, trains, or the country's power network.

The trial opened on Wednesday and is expected to last five months.

The suspects have pleaded not guilty.

According to the charges, the group was arrested just before they decided on their targets. Prosecutors also said they were working with accomplices in the US and Canada.

Prosecutors say the suspects had received terrorist training at a camp in Pakistan, as well as backing from a senior al-Qaida operative.

An Ottawa may, Momin Khawaja, was making remote-controlled detonators for the seven British suspects, the court heard, according to the Toronto Star daily.

The daily said the police searched Khawaja’s home and found "home-made radio transmitter and receiver boards" - devices that allow bombs "to be detonated from a safe distance," the prosecution said.

Khawaja will be tried in Canada on terrorism charges.