HIS headless body lies in a London mortuary, but the spectre of Mohammad Sidique Khan came back to haunt those investigating him last week.

The release by Al-Qaeda of the suicide bomber’s video testimony has forced police and intelligence agencies investigating the July 7 London bombings to reconsider some of their key assumptions.

They are attempting to establish whether the attacks were directed by Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist organisation or whether Al-Qaeda was seeking to lay claim to the explosions.

Last week investigators were sticking to their belief that there was no overseas mastermind behind the attacks. But independent experts were less guarded, stating that the new video bears all the hallmarks of an Al-Qaeda production and exhibits striking similarities with previous tapes.

The video, sections of which were broadcast last Thursday on Al-Jazeera, the Arabic television station, is now being examined frame by frame for any clues as to when and where it was made.

Anti-terrorist branch investigators have already noted that Khan’s haircut differed noticeably from its appearance just before the bombings, suggesting that the video was shot months previously. They will now try to identify clues from his clothing and will conduct a forensic examination of the tape to identify the equipment on which it was recorded.

The video’s release restored the aftermath of the London bombings to the heart of Britain’s domestic political agenda. There is a consensus among experts that the tape was given to Al-Jazeera by the Al-Qaeda leadership as new footage of Ayman al-Zawahiri, second in command to Bin Laden, also appears on it.

Al-Zawahiri’s claim that the London bombings were a direct response to Britain’s role in Iraq is calculated to reignite Tony Blair’s difficulties over the war.

Khan, however, makes no direct reference to Iraq. Instead he talks about avenging the deaths of Muslims inflicted by western governments. Neither does he say he is acting for Al-Qaeda, although he does praise its leaders as “heroes”.

This would be consistent with one theory being posited by the intelligence services that Khan was not being directed by Al-Qaeda but that the group had somehow managed to acquire his video so as to bolster its fearsome reputation.Other terrorism experts who have studied the video say that Khan’s section bears many of the hallmarks of an Al-Qaeda production.

It is believed that all 19 of the 9/11 suicide bombers recorded their last “wills” on video in a similar manner, although only three were broadcast. This could imply that the three other 7/7 terrorists also made recordings.

Significantly, Khan’s video and all three of the 9/11 films were made by the Al Sahab video media production company, an underground Al-Qaeda entity that has produced the terror group’s 12 known videos.

Evan Kohlmann, a consultant on terrorism to the American government and who has studied the films, says Khan’s video exhibits the same editorial control and professionalism of previous Al-Qaeda productions.

There are similarities, for example, to the video of Said Alghamdi, who was one of the hijackers of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. He too reads a short, heavily edited statement directly to camera while wearing an identical headdress to Khan, worn in a Saudi Arabian style.

Although the words are not identical, the general theme is similar. “The 9/11 suicide bombers said the same things as Khan — talking about injustice in the world and how the West is responsible,” said Kohlmann.

M J Gohel, from the Asia Pacific Foundation, the London-based terrorism think tank, says Kahn also appears to have been indoctrinated in a similar way. “He has no allegiance to his country, just to his religion. He is a warrior who will kill innocents. When he left that recording he would have been a ticking timebomb.”

The words are inflammatory and misleading. Khan refers to the “gassing” of his Muslim brothers, which has puzzled experts, although it is thought that it may relate to a rumour that the Taliban were attacked with chemicals in Afghanistan.

After viewing the video, Michael Scheuer, head of the CIA’s Bin Laden unit until last year, said there is now “little doubt” that Khan was acting under instructions from the Al-Qaeda leader.

“The speech itself was extraordinarily close in terms of content to what other terrorists connected to Al-Qaeda have said in the past,” he said.

“It is also very similar to the statements issued by Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al- Zawahiri . . . It was unnerving to hear them in Khan’s clear English accent.”

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