Qaeda planning major terrorist attack on London

LONDON - Osama Bin Laden's replacement as leader of Al-Qaeda is planning a major terrorist attack on London, ordering his followers to 'crush' the city, British daily The Sun has reported. Soon after being officially appointed caretaker chief of the terrorist group, Saif al-Adel vowed to avenge the death of his former boss. 'Our new leader has asked for a big plan for London,' Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said. 'He believes the UK is the backbone of Europe and must be crushed.' According to the newspaper, Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders met near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan to confirm the new role for al-Adel, 51, who was once Bin Laden's security chief. In response to the heightened threat on London, British Transport Police are to be given the power to carry weapons on the capital's trains, stations and the underground for the first time. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond will next week announce the plan, which is aimed at deterring the threat of another terrorist attack. The BTP, which protects the rail, tube and urban metro system, has 2,900 officers and the proposals involve giving around 100 of them firearms training. British Security officials are particularly concerned about the possibility of an attack like that in Nov 2008 in Mumbai when gunmen attacked hotels and the city's main railway stations, killing nearly 200 people. The news comes as the Manchester 'Easter shopping' bomb plot has been linked directly to Bin Laden for the first time. Files seized by US special forces from the al-Qaeda chief's Pakistani compound reveal that Bin Laden himself masterminded the Manchester terrorist cell. The files have now been passed to British Intelligence Agency MI5. Documents found at the hide-out also suggested that al-Qaeda planned to blow up oil tankers to spark an economic crisis in Western countries. Al-Qaeda also planned to blow the huge ships up from the inside after researching plans of their construction, according to the report.