By yesterday the blame game among the suspected London bombers had begun. Inside police headquarters in Rome, Hussain Osman, the fugitive captured in the city on Friday, was accusing another man of leading the terrorist cell that attempted to strike London on July 21.

According to reports in Italy, Osman was accusing Muktar Said-Ibrahim, the one thought to have left a bomb on a bus in Hackney, of being the driving force. He claimed Ibrahim had been the militant commander, inciting him with videos of horrors in Iraq and instructing him how to make bombs from consumer goods, such as fertiliser.

“[Ibrahim] gave me the instructions for the attack,” he reportedly told investigators. “I was a member of a gym in Notting Hill, that’s where I met Muktar Ibrahim.

“Religion has nothing to do with this story. Muktar showed us videos with images of the war in Iraq . . . especially the ones showing women and children killed and exterminated by British and American soldiers. He said we must do something big.”

Their answer was the bombs used on July 21 which contained potentially devastating amounts of explosive, but which failed to work. According to Osman, the suspected attackers feared the home-made devices were unstable.

He allegedly claimed that Ibrahim said his bomb might leak acid. It did and Osman suffered a burn to his leg.

For all these apparent admissions, investigators know they have a long way to go to establish the true nature of the

July 21 attackers. Yesterday, Osman seemed to be painting a picture of amateurs who bungled the plot and were not part of a wider conspiracy.

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