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Police inspect the scene at Mike's Place, a popular nightspot near the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv in April 2003. (AP)
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07/11
ynetnews |
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners July 11, 2005 |
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The terror attack in London last week may be tied to a suicide bombing on Tel Aviv's beachfront in April 2003, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported.
According to the paper, Mossad officials informed British security officials that the explosive material used in the Tel Aviv attack on Mike's Place pub was apparently also utilized to stage the bombings in London on Thursday.
The Mossad office in London received advance notice about the attacks, but only six minutes before the first blast, the paper reports, confirming an earlier AP report. As a result, it was impossible to take any action to prevent the blasts.
"They reached us too late for us to do something about it," a Mossad source is quoted as saying.
The German newspaper reported that the Mossad relayed an analysis of the explosives used in the Mike's Place attack to British security officials, with sources in the Israeli intelligence agency quoted as saying there is a "high likelihood" the explosives used in Tel Aviv were the same ones used in London.
After analyzing the explosive material used in the Mike's Place attack, the Mossad concluded it was produced in China and later smuggled into Britain, the paper reported. The explosives were apparently stashed by terrorists connected to al-Qaeda who were able to evade raids by British security forces.
Mossad Chief Meir Dagan is reported to have said that the explosive in question is very powerful, and "much more lethal than plastic explosives and can be smuggled undetected due to its composition."
The Mossad determined that the substance was developed and produced at the Chinese ZDF arms factory, located about 65 kilometers (about 40 miles) from Beijing, the paper reported.
However, the German story was not clear as to whether the Mossad is involved in any way in the investigation into the London bombings.
3 people murdered at Mike's Place
The Mike's Place attack killed three people, Ran Baron, 24, Yanai Weiss, 46, and Caroline Dominique Hess, 29. The bombing was carried out by two terrorists, Asif Mohammed Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif, who were recruited by Hamas in Britain and affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement in Gaza, where they stayed before carrying out the murder.
The two entered Israel using their British passports.
Hanif blew himself up at the beachfront Tel Aviv pub, but Sharif failed to detonate his explosives and fled the scene in shame. A few weeks later, his body washed up on a Tel Aviv beach.
The terrorists' relatives were detained in Britain after the attack on suspicion they knew of the plot and did nothing to prevent the attack. The relatives' trial ended in July of last year, with the court ordering a retrial for Sharif's sister and brother.
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