The bomber who sent a warning moments before two bombs exploded in
Sweden yesterday has been identified and police are investigating his
links with Luton, the UK town already assiciated with extremism.
Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly, who emailed a warning to a Swedish news agency 10 minutes before the explosions in Stockholm’s busy shopping precinct, is thought to have spent several years living and studying in the UK.
The two explosions happened a few hundred metres apart. The first
destroyed a car and the second killed the suspected terrorist bomber
and injured two people.
Police also received an email warning 10 minutes before the attack
an e-mail from a man saying it was “time to strike” because a “war was
being waged against Islam.”
According to his social media site pages bomber al Abdaly was a 28-year-old married father-of-two who moved to Sweden from Iraq in 1992. He
studied sports therapy at the University of Luton and apparently upset
members of the Luton Islamic Centre in 2007 for trying to present a
“distorted view” of Islam.
Swedish Security Service believe that the two blasts are the work of
“a single perpetrator” but are yet to confirm if the warnings and the
two explosions are linked.
“We don’t know yet that the three incidents are connected, even if
much evidence points to this,” Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told a
news conference. “It’s important to say that this is unacceptable and
very serious, but let’s be patient and let the police and the security
police work.”
Sweden may be a target for Islamic terrorists as it has 500 soldiers
in Afghanistan serving as part of the International Security Assistance
Force. The country also caused anger among Muslims after a Swedish
newspaper published drawings of the Prophet Mohammed’s head on a dog’s
body in 2007.
Back in the UK, what is thought to have been al
Abdaly’s home in Luton has been searched by police, after a warrant was
executed under the Terrorism Act.
An investigation is underway to see if the Swedish bombing could have been planned in the UK.
Luton has been linked with extremist Islam before. In 2005, it emerged
the July 7 suicide bombers had met at Luton station before travelling
to Kings Cross in London to carry out their bombings.
Last March, there were clashes in Luton when Muslims marched waving
placards reading “Anglian soldiers: Butchers of Basra” and “Anglian
Soldiers: cowards, killers, extremists” as British troops returned from
Iraq.