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British
police are considering the possibility that the four key suspects
in last week's London attacks may have been tricked into setting
off their bombs, a British newspaper has reported.
"We do not have hard evidence that the men were suicide bombers," a
Scotland Yard spokesman told The Sunday Telegraph. "It is possible
that they did not intend to die."
According to the paper, one police hypothesis is that the bombers
were tricked by a "master" who told them they would have time to
escape - when in fact the devices were set to go off
immediately.
"The bombers' masters might have thought that they couldn't risk
the four men being caught and spilling everything to British
interrogators," an unnamed security official told the
Telegraph.
Lending weight to the theory is the fact that all four men had paid
up their parking tickets before boarding a train at Luton for
King's Cross, and that they all bought return tickets to the
capital.
Moreover, the paper said, the men were carrying their explosives
inside rucksacks, as opposed to strapped to their bodies as is
common practice among suicide bombers.
None were reported to have cried "Allah Akbar" (God is Greatest)
before setting off their charge - something which most Middle
Eastern suicide bombers do.
"It is possible they were duped into believing there would be a
delay, but what we know is that they carried bombs onto Tubes and a
bus and set them off, killing themselves and innocent people," one
senior officer told the paper.
"But we are keeping an open mind until we have firm evidence one
way or another," said the officer.
Police have based their theory that the attacks were suicide
bombings largely around the fact that all four suspects died in the
attacks.
The fact that one of the bombers was decapitated - a common outcome
for suicide bombers - is also seen as supporting the theory, as
well as the fact that investigators discovered no timer
devices.
Sir Ian Blair, the head of London's Metropolitan Police, said on
Thursday that the attacks had been suicide bombings.
"They went onto those Tubes or bus to kill, and presumably accepted
they would be killed," he said, adding: "You don't need to be a
suicide bomber in a liberal democracy. They've chosen to be."
