Doctor accused of bomb plot left will to bin Laden

A court hears two doctors planned "murder on an indiscriminate and wholesale scale" in car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.

LONDON // Two Muslim doctors plotted to commit "murder on an indiscriminate and wholesale scale" in car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow last year, a British court has been told. One of the men, Bilal Abdulla, an Iraqi citizen born in the United Kingdom, even made out a will to Osama bin Laden, saying that he had carried out the attacks in revenge for injustices imposed on Muslims by British and US soldiers, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

The trial, which resumes tomorrow, has been told that Dr Abdulla and his accomplice, Kafeel Ahmed, drove Mercedes Benz cars from their bomb lab in a Scottish apartment to London last June. Inside the cars were explosive devices they planned to trigger remotely in London's West End, potentially killing dozens of revellers and tourists. When the bombs failed to detonate, the pair returned to Scotland and, the following day, rammed a SUV into the entrance of the passenger terminal at Glasgow Airport, which was crowded with thousands of passengers, many of them children, flying out at the start of the school holidays.

The vehicle, however, caught fire as it got stuck in the airport entrance. Mr Ahmed, 28, who was born in India and had a PhD in mechanical engineering, suffered severe burns and died in hospital a fortnight later. According to the prosecution, Dr Abdulla, 29, and Mr Ahmed were actively assisted in the plot by Mohammed Asha, 27, a Jordanian citizen born in Saudi Arabia, who is accused of being an active part of the terrorist cell. Both doctors deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions.

Jonathan Laidlaw, the prosecutor, told the jury: "Their plan was to carry out a series of attacks on the public using bombs concealed in vehicles. No warnings were to be given and the cars were to be positioned in busy urban areas. "These men were intent on committing murder on an indiscriminate and a wholesale scale. By the carrying out of a series of explosions, with no warning as to where the next strike would occur, the terrorists knew the public would be gripped by fear. They would not know where the terrorists would strike next."

He said that the cars left in London, including one outside a nightclub crammed with young people, contained gas cylinders, petrol cans and large quantities of nails. "The repeated attempts to detonate the vehicles failed but that was not through any lack of effort by the bombers. It was no more than good fortune that nobody died," said Mr Laidlaw. He said that the bombers' failure in London led to a "dramatic change" in plan because the men knew that the police would soon be on their trail.

Dr Abdulla and Mr Ahmed loaded a jeep with gas cylinders and petrol bombs at the apartment just outside Glasgow and drove to the terminal, planning a "spectacular" attack that would kill many on the airport's busiest day of the year. "It is clear that having failed to detonate the vehicles in London, they were prepared to do literally anything to achieve an explosion which was bound to result in them losing their lives," Mr Laidlaw said.

He said that pair planned to create a fireball in the terminal that would kill many of the departing passengers. But the vehicle failed to smash its way into the building and became stuck in the entrance. Mr Ahmed, Mr Laidlaw said, poured fuel from a can from the stationary vehicle. "He then threw another petrol bomb down into that pool of fuel before getting out of the jeep. Once he got out, he was immediately engulfed in flames."

An airport worker doused the flames but Mr Ahmed later died of his injuries. Mr Laidlaw said that Dr Abdulla, a junior house doctor at a Glasgow area hospital, tried to run off but was apprehended. Dr Asha, a neurologist at University Hospital of North Staffordshire, was arrested later the same day as he drove along a motorway in Cheshire. Mr Laidlaw described Dr Asha as "an important member of this terrorist cell" who had paid for some of the materials and cars used in the two failed attacks.

"After almost anything of significance occurring to Abdulla," said Mr Laidlaw, "would lead to him making contact with or visiting Asha. "As the evidence demonstrates, they turned their attention away from the treatment of illness to the planning of murder. Material found in their possession after their arrests reveals that both men hold or adhere to extreme Islamic beliefs. "Despite their professions and their obligations to save life and avert suffering, they both share the same extreme religious and murderous ideology as has inspired other terrorists who have struck at, or threatened, this country in recent years."