The web of terror in London

Two of the suspects arrested in London this week are believed to be major figures in international terrorism. One has been named as a top al Qaeda operative and a right-hand man to Osama bin Laden in the official report on the September 11 attacks.

The other, who will appear in court today following an extradition request from the United States, is said to be an important fund-raiser for terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan.

Following the arrests five al Qaeda militants linked to an alleged plot to attack Heathrow were reported today to be on the run in Britain. It is claimed that the men, all of Pakistani origin, escaped capture during the police raids this week but are still in the country. The first suspect is said to have been sent to the US to prepare a second wave of attacks on Jewish and economic targets only months

before hijackers struck at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

He is identified in the 9/11 report by the alias Issa al-Britan. But he is also known as Abu Eisa al-Hindi or Abu Musa al Hindi, a British citizen born in India.

Reports on US television last night said he was also the author of terrorist training manual that describes killing "enemy" soldiers using remote-controlled explosives, grenades and automatic weapons.

He was arrested in Willesden two days ago along with 11 other suspects after what is believed to be a tip-off from Pakistani intelligence.

US intelligence believe that al-Hindi is a trusted aide of Bin Laden who was responsible for communications between senior al Qaeda figures hiding in Pakistan and Afghanistan and sleeper cells in Britain and the US.

The September 11 report published last week in America says he was first identified during the CIA's interrogation of Khalid Shaik Mohammed, al Qaeda's former operations chief in Pakistan who was captured over a year ago.

According to the report, Mohammed admitted under questioning that in early 2001 he ordered the British citizen "to the United States to case potential economic and Jewish targets in New York City."

US intelligence only learned that al-Hindi was living in Britain after the arrest of another Pakistani last month, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old computer engineer.

Files and emails on a laptop owned by Khan revealed al-Hindi's presence in the UK and led to his arrest and those of the other suspects.

Reports today said that Khan was forced by Pakistani intelligence officers to take part in a "sting" operation, sending scores of coded emails to key al Qaeda figures around the world demanding they get in touch with him. The undercover operation is said to have led Pakistani police to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted for the bombings of US embassies in East Africa.

Information from Khan is also understood to have triggered this week's major security alert in the US after the discovery of highly-detailed plans dating back four years to bomb targets that included the New York Stock Exchange and the World Bank in Washington.

Surveillance reports on the buildings, including details of construction and security, are now believed to have been written by al-Hindi himself.

A terrorism training manual published in 1999 also gives a detailed biography of

al-Hindi, saying that he was born into a Hindu family in India but converted to Islam at the age of 20.

He fought in the disputed territory of Kashmir in the 1990s and became an instructor at Mujahideen training camps in Afghanistan before returning to Britain.

US officials suspect that there may be links between al-Hindi and Finsbury Park mosque cleric Abu Hamza, who is facing extradition to America on charges that he tried to set up terrorist training camps in Oregon.

The second significant figure arrested this week is Babar Ahmad, 30, who was seized in Kensington yesterday afternoon. Details of the cases against Ahmad will also be made public later today in the US.

A sealed warrant alleges Ahmad used websites and email based in the US between 1998 and February 19, 2001 to supply money and property for "acts of terrorism" in Chechnya and Afghanistan.

But intelligence sources in the US last night linked him to the Khan sting operation. According to a report in today's New York TImes, Ahmad may also be related to Khan.

Ahmad, of Fountain Road, Tooting, was taken to a central London police station following the arrest in Exhibition Road. He is due to appear at Bow Street magistrates' court today.

Neighbours described Ahmad as a polite, well-educated man.

One said: "I had seen him several times and there was nothing strange about him. He seemed like a professional man with a good job."

Putul Hossain, 36, said: "I think their surname is Khan, because a letter was delivered to us by accident. I talk to them. They are very friendly and say nice things."

But another neighbour, in his 40s, said he had become increasingly religious during the last few years and had taken to wearing traditional Muslim dress.

The man, a Muslim himself, said: "He never used to have a beard or go to the mosque that often but about three years ago he changed. He grew a beard and he became very devout. He started to take an interest in politics and the oppression of Muslims in Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan and Chechnya."

Last night, teams of forensic police officers were still searching two terraced houses 500 yards apart in Fountain Road.

Robert Loftus, 22, a medical student who lives opposite one of the houses, said: "There have been raids in this house a few months back, and they were about 10 policemen in their cars." Members of the Muslim community said Ahmad was arrested in January this year but released without charge.

Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said following that arrest Ahmad made a complaint of police abuse in custody and an investigation is under way into those allegations.

Mr Shadjareh said the arrest was "being used to undermine due process".

An Independent Police Complaints Commission spokeswoman confirmed they were carrying out an investigation into allegations Ahmad was abused by police while in custody earlier this year.