18/03/2004

Terrorist attack on UK 'imminent', warns al-Qaeda

A statement purporting to be from a terrorist group with affiliations to al-Qaeda has warned of impending attacks on countries around the world.

An e-mail sent to an Arabic news agency is said the have originated from the group responsible for the recent attack on Madrid and last year's bombings in Istanbul.

It is reported that a "Death Brigade" is targeting the UK, Australia and Saudi Arabia, but that operations in Spain had been suspended following the elected government's revised approach to Iraq.

Spain's newly elected prime minister has declared that unless there is UN intervention in Iraq he will sanction the removal of Spanish forces in Iraq.

The message, which is said to include a poem praising Osama bin Laden is from the Abu Hafs al-Mari Brigade.

On Tuesday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens warned that a terrorist attack on the UK was "inevitable" and efforts to step up security have included the deployment of plain-clothes officers on trains.

Last week's bomb attacks in Madrid have so far claimed 201 lives.

The group is also said to have carried out bomb attacks in Istanbul that claimed the lives of 60 people in one week, including that of the British Consul to Turkey.

(SP)

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