By Eric Lenkowits
The New York Post
Related: London police foil major terror plot
LONDON — British authorities ominously warned yesterday that there will “very likely” be more terror attacks after the fiery SUV crash at Scotland’s Glasgow Airport and the foiled London car-bomb plot.
Five suspects, including two doctors, have been arrested.
“There is a group of individuals out there who have the capability and the intent to carry out attacks in the U.K.,” a source told The Times of London. “In our judgment, it is very likely there will be further attacks.”
The security level in the United Kingdom was raised to “critical” — meaning an attack is believed imminent — after the Scotland strike.
The grim forecast comes as British authorities busted three more people during an intense manhunt for suspects in the previous attacks, raising the total of those in custody to five.
Although no details were released, CNN and Sky News reported yesterday that two of the suspects are medical doctors. The BBC reported that none of the five was British but came from “various Middle Eastern countries,” and one prime suspect was at large.
Meanwhile, a report emerged that U.S. intelligence officials were warned about a possible strike at Glasgow Airport two weeks ago.
The warning specifically mentioned “airport infrastructure or airport” in Glasgow and gave a similar caution for the Czech Republic, according to ABC News.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff refused to comment on the reported warning, telling ABC only that “whatever information the U.S. government and intelligence community had was shared very readily with our British counterparts.”
In New York City, police brass issued their own “Threat Analysis” in the wake of the Glasgow attack, specifically mentioning night spots as potential targets for terrorists.
“Attacks on soft targets such as nightclubs have long been considered a vulnerability in the U.S.,” the report said, warning residents that car bombs also have “been long regarded as a viable threat in NYC.”
Two bomb scares hit the city yesterday, when a suspicious package was found at JFK Airport, prompting a brief evacuation of the American Airlines terminal, and a truck with a hazardous material warning was discovered parked under the West Side Highway. Neither the package nor truck contained anything dangerous.
The suspects in Saturday’s fiery explosion of a fuel-laden Jeep Cherokee at the front of the Scotland airport’s main terminal have been linked to al Qaeda, British authorities confirmed.
“Al Qaeda has imported the tactics of Baghdad and Bali to the streets of the U.K.,” said Lord John Stevens, London’s former police chief and new Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s terrorism adviser.
Brown said the threat of attacks on British soil is “long-term and sustained. We are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with al Qaeda.”
Security sources said the timing and location of the attack show it was meant to coincide with Brown’s first days in office. The new prime minister is from Scotland. It also comes a week before the two-year anniversary of the July 7, 2005, terror bombings on London’s transit system, which killed 52.
The suspect identified as the Glasgow SUV’s driver was in critical condition at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, near the airport, with severe burns suffered when he doused himself with gasoline and set himself ablaze.
He was shouting, “Allah! Allah!” as he was dragged away by cops, one witness said.
The driver and his accomplice were under arrest, along with a 26-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman picked up along a major highway in the northern England town of Cheshire.
A fifth person — a 26-year-old man — was nabbed in Liverpool, which is more than 200 miles south of Glasgow. He has been directly linked to both the Glasgow attack and the latest London terror bid, according to The Times of London. Scottish police denied reports that investigators found the charred body of a third man in the SUV at the airport.
The attack — which could have caused significant damage if gas canisters in the SUV had exploded — was connected to Friday’s foiled twin car bombings in central London, officials said.
“We are learning a great deal about the people involved in the attacks here in Glasgow and in the attempted attacks in central London. The links between them are becoming ever clearer,” said Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard’s counter terrorist unit.
“I’m confident, absolutely confident, that in the coming days and weeks, we will be able to gain a thorough understanding of the methods used by the terrorists, the way in which they planned their attacks, and the network to which they belong.”
Copyright 2007 N.Y.P. Holdings