June 29, 2007

Thwarted Car Bomb Attack Tests Brown's Government

UPDATED.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's still-forming government is being put to the test on just his second full day on the job. A foiled car bomb attack in central London has Britain on high alert.

Scotland Yard reported this afternoon that the plot was more extensive than it may have initially feared, when authorities found a second car with explosives linked to the car near Piccadilly Circus found this morning. The second device -- found in a Mercedes, like the first -- was apparently left in a car parked illegally underground near Trafalgar Square. After it was towed to an area near Buckingham Palace, workers smelled gasoline, and because gas containers had been found in the first car, they investigated and uncovered bomb parts.

Three suspects were being sought in connection to the thwarted bombings. U.S. officials told NBC News that the three men have been identified and are said to be from near Birmingham, a heavily Muslim area of the country. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Propane gas, canisters and "a substantial quantity of nails" were found in both cars, British police anti-terror chief Peter Clarke told the media this afternoon.

The method of attack is described as amateurish -- the propane gas was in a canister typically used to fuel outdoor grills, and the nails were left on the cars' floors. "Nails could be considered as an additional way of extending the potential damage and lethal range of the device but putting them on the floor is an incompetent way of building a bomb. They would go straight into the ground," an explosives expert told the London Guardian.

"We're currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism," said Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who has been on the job less than 48 hours. The plot "reinforces the need for the public to remain vigilant and alert to the threat we face at all times," she added.

The thwarted plot is likely to remind many of the Irish Republican Army's car bombing campaign in Britain and Northern Ireland in the 1970s through 1990s. Car bombs are now most often the calling card of Islamic militants and insurgents in Iraq, leading British officials to fear that the spectacularly effective method is being exported to their country.

Britain is under a "severe" terror threat, and the stepped-up vigilance is likely to continue through next week's anniversary of the 7/7 London transit bombings.

BBC News has photos and a Q&A about the investigation, and the Guardian, the Telegraph and BBC News are updating continuously.

Posted at 5:15 PM
Posted to: Europe, Gordon Brown, U.K.
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