THE London bombers were initially ordered by Al-Qaeda to assassinate the England and Australia cricket teams during the 2005 Ashes, a friend of one of the terrorists has claimed.

Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer allegedly received the orders at a training camp near Kotli, northern Kashmir, in December 2004.

The claims have been made by a family friend of Hasib Hussain, the bus bomber who killed 13 people. The friend, who is willing to pass his information to the police, uses a pseudonym, Ahmed Hafiz.

According to Hafiz, 32, the bombers were instructed to get jobs as stewards at the Edgbaston cricket ground and to spray sarin gas inside the changing rooms. The second Test between England and Australia, whose governments have supported Washington in the war on terror, began on August 4, 2005.

Hafiz, whose family have known the Hussains for 25 years, said he had received details of the bombers’ visit from members of his extended family, who are involved in running the camp in Kashmir.

He claimed Tanweer, 22, objected to the plot, possibly because he was a cricketer. He was told by a witness that Tanweer argued with Khan, 30, and a scuffle between them had to be broken up by a minder. Hafiz provided a picture of the minder, who was allegedly shot last August. However, last week locals in Kotli said they had never seen him.

“Tanweer had Sidique (Khan) in a headlock, and the fight had to be broken up by the chaperone.”

Days later, Hafiz claims, the camp’s commanders, militants affiliated to Al-Qaeda, revealed the plot to bomb the London Underground to Khan and Tanweer. “It was always there, as Plan B,” said Hafiz.

Although it was known the two bombers visited Pakistan in November 2004, until now no details had emerged about which camp they attended. However, last week, locals in Kotli said all training camps in the region had been suspended since autumn 2004, under pressure from the ISI, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency. There are still militant safe houses in the area.

Yesterday a senior anti-terrorist officer in the July 7 investigation said they would be interested to interview the source. “We know Khan and Tanweer went to Pakistan. But we still don’t know which training camp they went to. Our understanding is Khan was helped by sources in Leeds.”

According to Hafiz, the camp commanders put Khan and Tanweer in touch with a bomb-making expert, who was based in Birmingham.

The expert, known as Afzal Shaan, is said to be a chemistry graduate from a British university who is in his forties, bald and usually clean-shaven.

Hafiz also provides an explanation for Khan’s emergence as the ringleader of the London bombers.

Khan was a friend of Omar Sharif, the Derby-based terrorist who tried to blow himself up in Tel Aviv in 2003. While his associate killed three people, Sharif’s bomb failed and he fled the scene. His body was found two weeks later washed up on the beach.

“That was the turning point for Sidique. He felt angry,” said Hafiz. “He changed from being a cheerleader of jihad to one of those people who became active.”

Hafiz claimed that Khan first visited the camp in Kashmir in the summer of 2003 on his own, after being given an introduction by an imam in Leeds. Neither the police nor the security services know of the Muslim cleric and his involvement with Khan.

The camp commanders were impressed when they saw Khan ceremonially sacrifice a bull and told him to return to the UK and prepare a group of friends willing to be martyrs.

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