A RADICAL Muslim cleric based in London claimed more than a year ago that an Al-Qaeda cell was planning to launch “a big operation” in the capital.

Omar Bakri Mohammed said a group calling itself Al-Qaeda Europe was “very well organised” and predicted that a terrorist attack was “inevitable”.

One of the claims of responsibility for last Thursday’s bombings has come from a group with a similar name.

Yesterday, commentators in Europe claimed Britain had paid the price for allowing Islamic extremists to flourish unopposed in “Londonistan”.

The stinging rebuke came as an apparent backlash against Britain’s Muslim community began to emerge with a petrol-bomb attack on a mosque in Merseyside.

Syrian-born Bakri, who has previously praised the 9/11 terrorists, predicted the attacks on British soil in April last year, a month after the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

In an interview with Portugal’s Publica news magazine, Bakri said: “It’s inevitable because several (attacks) are being prepared by several groups.” He said a group calling itself Al-Qaeda Europe “has a great appeal for young Muslims . . . I know that they are ready to launch a big operation”.

The Secret Organisation Group of Al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe made its unverified claim about the London attacks on the Arabic website Al-Qalah (The Fortress) about three hours after the last of four bombs exploded in central London.

The statement said: “Rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist Crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic mujaheddin have carried out a blessed raid in London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic.”

In the Portuguese interview, Bakri described British troops in Iraq as “terrorists”. “Terrorism is the law of the 21st century,” he said. “It’s legitimate.”

Asked what constituted a legitimate target, Bakri said: “We don’t make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and non-believers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity.” At least one Muslim — a 20-year-old woman — is feared to have died in the London bombings and many more were injured.

Bakri, with several other known Islamic militants, has been keeping a low profile since last Thursday’s attacks.

Bakri disbanded his extremist outfit al-Muhajiroun last October, claiming that all Muslims should unite together against a hostile West. The group had previously celebrated the 9/11 atrocities in America, describing the hijackers as “The Magnificent 19”.

Yesterday, Saad al-Fagih, a Saudi exile who has been implicated in the 1998 East African embassy bombings, denied a report that he ran the Al-Qalah website.

“It has nothing to do with me,” he said from his home in Willesden, northwest London. “I condemn these attacks.”

Al-Fagih, however, said he was in no doubt that Al-Qaeda was behind the bombings and claimed the perpetrators were either “indigenous” Muslims or foreigners who had been settled in Britain for some time.

“Thanks to the American invasion of Iraq, Al-Qaeda has no shortage of manpower,” he said. “My sources tell me that 3,000 Saudis have joined the jihad in Iraq and are prepared to become suicide bombers anywhere in the world.”

Al-Fagih, who runs an organisation called the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, has been accused by American prosecutors of providing Osama Bin Laden with a satellite phone to help co-ordinate the 1998 attacks on Kenya and Tanzania.

• The Wirral Islamic cultural centre and Shahjalal mosque in Birkenhead, Merseyside, was set alight early yesterday. One person, suffering from smoke inhalation, was rescued from flats above the building.

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