The world's most wanted cyber-jihadist

Intelligence services are investigating claims that an Islamist website is setting up a branch of al-Qaeda in Britain, according to reports last night.

There are fears that a posting on the site, www.alekhlaas.net, declaring “the creation of the al-Qaeda organisation in Britain” may be genuine.

The site urges young Muslim men to rise up against infidels such as “(Prime Minister Gordon) Brown and (Tony) Blair”. It was put up on January 2.

“You don’t ignore this sort of thing,” Pauline Neville-Jones, the former head of the British joint intelligence committee, told the BBC’s Newsnight.

“It may not be a threat from an existing cell ... but it does represent a move in the propaganda game and the propaganda game is not something we should ignore. This is after all a struggle over ideology.”

In July 2005, Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on London’s public transport system.

Last June, two men attempted to blow up cars loaded with gas canisters, fuel and nails outside a London nightclub, and a fuel-laden car was driven at speed into Glasgow airport before the assailants were subdued by passers-by.

Newsnight said there was no way of knowing how serious the declaration on the Web site was, although it mirrored the language used on other well-know militant sites that have carried declarations by al-Qaeda and its affiliates in the past.

The site hosts a catalogue of Islamist messages, musings and writings, and has been visited by more than 17 million people.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• New York threatens London's place in fashion
• Computer game to rewrite evolution
• Teacher shows how to live on £1 a day