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Chemist sought in London bombings held in Cairo
CTV.ca News Staff
A U.S.-trained Egyptian chemist, sought for questioning in connection with last week's bombings in London, has been arrested in Cairo and is being interrogated by police.
A government official confirmed that 33-year-old Magdy al-Nashar was taken into custody in suburban Cairo.
"It could be quite significant, but we're not sure yet," CTV's Tom Kennedy reported from London, where he is watching developments.
"What is important for police is to find somebody who is living in part of this network of people involved in the blowing up the transport system here last week, who can perhaps give them some more information."
Al-Nashar, whom British authorities have yet to formally call a suspect, left the United Kingdom two weeks before the transit attacks.
Police believe al-Nashar may have helped the suicide bombers build the explosives used in the deadly attacks that left dozens dead and hundreds wounded. The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that police were searching a house in Leeds linked to al-Nashar.
"Police are making a possible connection between him and the bomb-making factory that serviced the London (bombers who) came down from Leeds to carry out the bombs," BBC's Chris Cundy reported from Leeds, appearing on CTV's Canada AM.
"That bomb-making factory is about half a mile away from the flat in the Hyde Park district of Leeds where this Egyptian student was believed to have been living."
al-Nashar, who arrived at Leeds University in October 2000 to do biochemical research, earned a doctorate in May.
The FBI had also joined in the extensive worldwide manhunt for al-Nashar because he attended an American university.
North Carolina State spokesman Keith Nichols said a graduate student by the name of al-Nashar studied chemical engineering at the university, for a semester beginning in January 2000.
"We're aware of an arrest in Cairo, but we are not prepared to discuss who we may or may not wish to interview in connection with this investigation," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
"This remains a fast-moving investigation with a number of lines of inquiry, some of which may have an international dimension."
Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities were looking into a connection between one of the London suicide bombers and al Qaeda-linked militant groups.
Two senior intelligence officials told The Associated Press, on condition of anonymity, that they were investigating a possible link between 22-year-old Shahzad Tanweer and a man arrested for a 2002 attack on a church near the U.S. Embassy.
One of the officials said that Tanweer is believed to have visited a radical religious school, run by a banned Sunni Muslims militant group, while on a trip to Pakistan.
However, the officials disputed reports that Tanweer studied at the school.
Officials said they believe Tanweer made a trip to Pakistan in the later half of 2004, where he met with Osama Nazir.
Nazir, who was arrested in 2004 for helping plan a grenade attack on a church in Islamabad that killed five people, told authorities from jail that he met with Tanweer before he was taken into custody.
On Thursday, British authorities confirmed that two of the four suicide bomb suspects -- Tanweer and 18-year-old Hasib Hussain were Britons of Pakistani descent.
According to reports, the other two suicide bombers have been identified as 30-year-old Mohammed Sidique Khan, also a Briton of Pakistani ancestry, and Jamaican-born Briton Lindsey Germaine.
Meanwhile, authorities have confirmed the bombers in last week's attacks are connected to an al Qaeda plot uncovered two years ago in the Pakistani city of Lahore.
Security officials told ABC News they have discovered ties between one of last week's London bombers and a group arrested last year.
During those arrests, police recovered the laptop computer of a captured al Qaeda leader. Loaded in the computer were plans for a coordinated series of attacks on the London subway system.
Names in the computer led to more than a dozen arrests of young Britons of Pakistani descent.
And while four London bombers died in the attacks, police believe at least one other man involved in those attacks is alive and still at large.
The man was seen on closed circuit videotapes at Luton station, located just north of London, as he bid farewell to the four bombers on the morning of the attacks.
Chemist sought in London bombings held in Cairo
CTV.ca News Staff
A U.S.-trained Egyptian chemist, sought for questioning in connection with last week's bombings in London, has been arrested in Cairo and is being interrogated by police.
A government official confirmed that 33-year-old Magdy al-Nashar was taken into custody in suburban Cairo.
"It could be quite significant, but we're not sure yet," CTV's Tom Kennedy reported from London, where he is watching developments.
"What is important for police is to find somebody who is living in part of this network of people involved in the blowing up the transport system here last week, who can perhaps give them some more information."
Al-Nashar, whom British authorities have yet to formally call a suspect, left the United Kingdom two weeks before the transit attacks.
Police believe al-Nashar may have helped the suicide bombers build the explosives used in the deadly attacks that left dozens dead and hundreds wounded. The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that police were searching a house in Leeds linked to al-Nashar.
"Police are making a possible connection between him and the bomb-making factory that serviced the London (bombers who) came down from Leeds to carry out the bombs," BBC's Chris Cundy reported from Leeds, appearing on CTV's Canada AM.
"That bomb-making factory is about half a mile away from the flat in the Hyde Park district of Leeds where this Egyptian student was believed to have been living."
al-Nashar, who arrived at Leeds University in October 2000 to do biochemical research, earned a doctorate in May.
The FBI had also joined in the extensive worldwide manhunt for al-Nashar because he attended an American university.
North Carolina State spokesman Keith Nichols said a graduate student by the name of al-Nashar studied chemical engineering at the university, for a semester beginning in January 2000.
"We're aware of an arrest in Cairo, but we are not prepared to discuss who we may or may not wish to interview in connection with this investigation," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
"This remains a fast-moving investigation with a number of lines of inquiry, some of which may have an international dimension."
Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities were looking into a connection between one of the London suicide bombers and al Qaeda-linked militant groups.
Two senior intelligence officials told The Associated Press, on condition of anonymity, that they were investigating a possible link between 22-year-old Shahzad Tanweer and a man arrested for a 2002 attack on a church near the U.S. Embassy.
One of the officials said that Tanweer is believed to have visited a radical religious school, run by a banned Sunni Muslims militant group, while on a trip to Pakistan.
However, the officials disputed reports that Tanweer studied at the school.
Officials said they believe Tanweer made a trip to Pakistan in the later half of 2004, where he met with Osama Nazir.
Nazir, who was arrested in 2004 for helping plan a grenade attack on a church in Islamabad that killed five people, told authorities from jail that he met with Tanweer before he was taken into custody.
On Thursday, British authorities confirmed that two of the four suicide bomb suspects -- Tanweer and 18-year-old Hasib Hussain were Britons of Pakistani descent.
According to reports, the other two suicide bombers have been identified as 30-year-old Mohammed Sidique Khan, also a Briton of Pakistani ancestry, and Jamaican-born Briton Lindsey Germaine.
Meanwhile, authorities have confirmed the bombers in last week's attacks are connected to an al Qaeda plot uncovered two years ago in the Pakistani city of Lahore.
Security officials told ABC News they have discovered ties between one of last week's London bombers and a group arrested last year.
During those arrests, police recovered the laptop computer of a captured al Qaeda leader. Loaded in the computer were plans for a coordinated series of attacks on the London subway system.
Names in the computer led to more than a dozen arrests of young Britons of Pakistani descent.
And while four London bombers died in the attacks, police believe at least one other man involved in those attacks is alive and still at large.
The man was seen on closed circuit videotapes at Luton station, located just north of London, as he bid farewell to the four bombers on the morning of the attacks.
