How best to blow up people on a bus - the chilling video circulating on terrorist websites
By Colin Freeman
(Filed: 10/07/2005)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/10/ncrime210.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/07/10/ixnewstop.html
A DIY video showing how to make a "suicide-belt" bomb for use on a crowded bus is being circulated among terrorist websites.
The 26-minute tape gives a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to pack the belt with shrapnel and high explosive, and then detonate it on board for maximum loss of life.
Images from the video that can be downloaded
In a grim reminder of the blast that devastated the Number 30 in London's Tavistock Place on Thursday, the film's final section shows the device being blown up in a specially arranged "test site", with rows of metal targets designed to simulate passengers on a bus. A voice-over explains exactly where the would-be bomber should sit on the vehicle in order to maximise the blast. A second test-bombing shows how the same bomb will impact on a crowd of people in a street.
The film, a copy of which has been obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, is among a wide range of terrorism training manuals available on internet message boards dedicated to supporting Islamic terrorism.
Little is known about the film's origins, although it is thought to have been shot in the Palestinian territories, where Arab militants have frequently used suicide belts in attacks on Israeli citizens.
It has slick production values that give it the feeling of a corporate video.
As music plays in the background, a voice in Arabic explains, Blue Peter-style, how to manufacture the belt with the help of household items such as glue and Scotch tape.
The video's availability on the internet was disclosed by the Washington-based Search for International Terrorist Entities (Site) Institute, a research establishment which monitors and analyses terrorist websites. It acts as a consultant to several Western intelligence agencies.
"The quality of the video is unbelievable," said Rita Katz, Site's director. "It is more like a production from National Geographic. We think it is the work of Hizbollah from some years ago, but it is being circulated on message boards."
Scotland Yard has tried to play down speculation that Thursday's explosion on the London bus, in which 13 people died, was the work of a suicide bomber. However, detectives say they are keeping an open mind until a forensic analysis of the bus's wreckage is complete.
Even if the inquiry rules it out, the fact that al-Qaeda has used such devices in the past means that it could be a tactic in any further attacks in Britain. The video gives a detailed demonstration of how to make the belt from start to finish, and has a single-minded emphasis to how to kill and maim as many victims as possible.
The voice-over notes: "When the person who will be wearing this explosive vest goes on the bus, and wants to blow himself up, he must be facing the front with his back toward the back.
"There is a possibility that the two seats on his right and his left might not be hit with the shrapnel. However, the explosion will surely kill the passengers in those seats." The video is among dozens of terrorist self-teaching aids circulating on jihadi message boards and websites, alongside manuals on the manufacture of poisonous chemicals and bacteria, urban guerrilla warfare tactics, and the use of rocket-propelled grenades and missiles.
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