The NHS doctor who tried to murder thousands of people in the London and Glasgow car bombings had been part of a terrorist cell in Iraq, counter-terrorism sources have told The Times.

Bilal Abdulla came to Britain to open a “new front” in the Islamist jihad after he had been refused permission to carry out a suicide attack in Baghdad.

The car bombs he tried to detonate outside the Tiger, Tiger nightclub and at Glasgow airport were the first terrorist attacks in Britain to have been inspired – but not directed — by al-Qaeda in Iraq. Previous Islamist plots have had connections to al-Qaeda and Kashmiri extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Abdulla, a 29-year-old Iraqi born in Aylesbury, showed no emotion as he was convicted yesterday at Woolwich Crown Court of conspiracy to murder and cause explosions. He faces life imprisonment and will be sentenced today.

Mohammed Asha, an NHS neurologist based in Staffordshire, smiled and closed his eyes as he was acquitted of both charges. The men, close friends after meeting when they worked as junior doctors in Cambridge, shook hands and embraced before Abdulla was led to the cells.

Dr Asha will be transferred to an immigration detention centre pending an attempt to deport him to his native Jordan. His solicitor said that the doctor wanted to continue his career and would fight the deportation.

The only victim of the two failed attacks was Kafeel Ahmed, Abdulla’s accomplice, a PhD student from India. He died from the severe burns that he suffered after driving the car bomb into the airport terminal.

Police are satisfied that Abdulla was the leader of the terrorist cell and had indoctrinated and radicalised Ahmed, whose engineering skills he needed to construct the bombs.

Abdulla, the son of respected physicians who had trained in Britain before returning to Iraq with their five-year old son, had witnessed both the first and second invasions of his home country by allied forces. A Sunni, he came to harbour a passionate hatred of Shia Muslims. US sources say that before he arrived in Britain he was known to have associated with a Sunni terrorist cell in Baghdad and played a backroom role, possibly as a quartermaster.

His professional background and excellent English meant that he could not be wasted in a martyrdom mission in Iraq. In Britain he was detected by MI5 on the periphery of extremist activity when he associated with Muslim radicals, including members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, while studying in Cambridge. He was not known to have associations with any active terrorists here.

The planting of two car bombs – packed with petrol canisters, propane gas cylinders and nails – in the West End caught the authorities off guard in June last year. The devices failed to explode.

Police across Britain were involved in a fast-moving pursuit of the two bombers as they made their way north to prepare their suicidal assault on Glasgow airport. Having recovered mobile phones from the bomb cars, police were able to track Abdulla and Ahmed as they returned to Scotland, stopping to visit Dr Asha.

“This was a very rapid pursuit,” a senior police source said. “On the morning of the Glasgow attack we were just an hour behind them.”

Police arrived at the bomb factory – a rented house in Paisley – about 5am on the day of the airport attack. The bombers had left the property an hour before in the Jeep that they would later set alight and ram into the terminal building.

Subsequent inquiries revealed that they had spent eight hours in and around Loch Lomond, including a long period on the beach, before setting off for the airport. Investigations showed that the terrorists researched bombmaking techniques on the internet and obtained advice on circuitry in chat rooms. They also researched potential targets, including music festival sites and the area around the Old Bailey.

A senior police source said that Abdulla was an “intelligent, self-motivated individual” who possessed a burning hatred of both Americans and Shia Muslims.He dedicated a section of his will to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the self-proclaimed leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed before Abdulla’s attacks.

Jim Sturman, QC, for Abdulla, said that his client wanted it to be known that his crimes were motivated by politics and his anger at what he saw as an “unjust war”, not religion.

The court was told that Dr Asha met Abdulla and Ahmed several times and was in regular mobile phone contact. He also lent Abdulla £1,300. Dr Asha said he had become concerned that Abdulla was increasingly extreme, and he intended to contact the terrorism hotline.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowall, head of the Scotland Yard Counter-terrorism Command, said that the West End bombs were to be the first in a series of attacks.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that a review of NHS recruitment procedures was carried out after the attacks, resulting in measures to tighten them.

Attack on Britain

556 potential victims in Tiger, Tiger nightclub

4,000 people in Glasgow airport

5 cars acquired by bombers

£3,450 paid for cars 6 Neuk Crescent, the bomb factory in Paisley

14 days that the search of bomb factory lasted

900 50mm (2in) nails in bomb outside nightclub

2 mobile phone detonators in each car in Haymarket

38 gallons of petrol in canisters in Glasgow bomb

Source: Times archives

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