CaseClosed

A view of the bus destroyed by a bomb in the London bombings, July 7, 2005. Photo taken July 8, 2005. Four explosions killed 52 people and injured nearly 800 others, orchestrated by four British Muslims. Three terrorists separately detonated three homemade bombs in quick succession aboard London Underground trains in Inner London. Later, a fourth terrorist detonated another bomb on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. The train bombings occurred on the Circle Line near Aldgate and at Edgware Road and on the Piccadilly Line near Russell Square. Apart from the bombers, 52 people from 18 countries were killed and nearly 800 were injured in the attacks. It was the UK's deadliest terrorist incident since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 near Lockerbie and the UK's first Islamist suicide attack. The explosions were caused by improvised explosive devices made from concentrated hydrogen peroxide and pepper, packed into backpacks. The bombings were followed two weeks later by a series of attempted attacks that failed to cause injury or damage. The 52 victims were of diverse backgrounds. All were UK residents, including exchange students. The majority lived in or near London. Their ages ranged from 20 to 60 years old, with an average age of 34. Thirty-two victims were British born, while one victim each came from Afghanistan, France, Ghana, Grenada, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mauritius, New Zealand, Nigeria, Romania, Sri Lanka and Turkey. Three victims were Polish nationals, while one victim was a Vietnamese-born Australian and one held dual American-Vietnamese citizenship. Seven of the victims were killed in the tunnel between Liverpool Street and Aldgate stations, six in the tunnel between Paddington and Edgware Road stations, 26 in the tunnel between King's Cross and Russell Square stations and a further 13 on the bus at Tavistock Square. The four suicide bombers were later identified as: Shehzad Tanweer, aged 22. He lived in Beeston, Leeds, occasionally working in his parents' fish and chip shop on Lodge Lane. He detonated his bomb first, on the number 204 train. Eight people, including Tanweer, were killed by the explosion. Mohammad Sidique Khan, aged 30. The ringleader of the four bombers, he also lived in Beeston, Leeds, with his wife and young child. He worked as a learning mentor at a primary school. Khan was the second to detonate a bomb, on the number 216 train, killing seven people, including himself. Germaine Lindsay, aged 19. He lived in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, with his pregnant wife Samantha and young son. His was the third bomb to be detonated, on the number 311 train. The blast killed 27 people, including him. Hasib Hussain, aged 18. He lived in Leeds with his brother and sister-in-law. Hussain detonated his bomb last, on a bus. Fourteen people, including him, died in the explosion in Tavistock Square. Tanweer, Khan and Hussain were British-born sons of Pakistani immigrants, and Lindsay was a convert born in Jamaica. Charles Clarke, Home Secretary when the attacks occurred, described the bombers as "cleanskins", a term describing them as previously unknown to authorities. On the day of the attacks, all four had travelled to Luton, Bedfordshire, by car. Lindsay arrived at Luton railway station just after 5:00 a.m., while the other three left Leeds around 4:00 a.m. and arrived at the train carpark at approximately 6.50 a.m.; all four entered the station at 7:15 a.m. and boarded a Thameslink train which left for London at 7:25 a.m. (the initial official account wrongly gave this departure time as 7:40 a.m.) They were filmed on CCTV arriving at King's Cross station just before 8:25 a.m. and were seen hugging soon afterwards before heading towards the Tube. Two of the bombers made videotapes describing their reasons for becoming what they called "soldiers". In a videotape broadcast by Al Jazeera on 1 September 2005, Mohammad Sidique Khan described his motivation. The tape had been edited and mentioned al-Qaeda members Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, describing them as "today's heroes". Khan's tape said: I and thousands like me are forsaking everything for what we believe. Our drive and motivation doesn't come from tangible commodities that this world has to offer. Our religion is Islam, obedience to the one true God and following the footsteps of the final prophet messenger. Your democratically-elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world. And your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters. Until we feel security you will be our targets and until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people, we will not stop this fight. We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you too will taste the reality of this situation. The tape continued: ...I myself, I myself, I make dua (pray) to Allah ... to raise me amongst those whom I love like the prophets, the messengers, the martyrs and today's heroes like our beloved Sheikh Osama bin Laden, Dr Ayman al-Zawahri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and all the other brothers and sisters that are fighting in the ... of this cause. On 6 July 2006, a videotaped statement by Shehzad Tanweer was broadcast by Al-Jazeera. In the video, which may have been edited to include remarks by al-Zawahiri, Tanweer said: Your government has openly supported the genocide of over 150,000 innocent Muslims in Falluja... You have offered financial and military support to the U.S. and Israel, in the massacre of our children in Palestine. You are directly responsible for the problems in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq to this day. You have openly declared war on Islam, and are the forerunners in the crusade against the Muslims. ... What you have witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of attacks that will continue and become stronger until you pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq. And until you stop your financial and military support to America and Israel. Tanweer argued that the non-Muslims of Britain deserve such attacks because they voted for a government which "continues to oppress our mothers, children, brothers and sisters in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya".