Mumbai attacks follow al-Qaeda blueprint

Washington/London, Nov 28 (PTI) The audacious attacks
by terrorists in India's financial capital Mumbai have all the
hallmarks of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, intelligence
agencies of world's major powers and terrorism experts say.

The terrorists who came from sea followed a
"blueprint" created by al-Qaeda "where the underlying theme is
to cause as much havoc as possible and this is exactly what
has happened in India," said London-based terrorism expert
George Kassimeris.

"Al Qaeda set the blueprint for terrorist operations
and now we see different people, different groups in different
parts of the world, copying it," said Kassimeris, a senior
research fellow at the University of Wolverhampton.

He said the Islamic extremist group created the
"modus operandi" of attacking vulnerable civilian targets with
no warning, long-term plans or demands.

Witness accounts from Mumbai that gunmen were looking
for US and British nationals suggest they want to grab
international attention.

"There is no specific operational or logistical plan,
they just want to inflict as much damage and injury as
possible," he said.

Bruce Riedel, a veteran CIA officer and former senior
director for South Asia and the Middle East on the White House
National Security Council, said the attacks had the "hallmarks
of an al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic group such as Lashkar-e
Toiba" (LeT), which is based in Pakistan and has links to
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

"India has been a major target of terrorism for the
last several years, Mumbai in particular," Riedel, one of the
top advisers to US President-elect Barack Obama, has been
quoted as saying in The Washington Times.

"The vast bulk of these attacks have been carried out
by Islamic extremist groups such as LeT, which has close links
to al-Qaeda," said Riedel, who is expected to figure in the
next US administration fashion.

In Moscow, a senior official at one of Russia's spy
agencies, directly blamed the al-Qaeda linked group for the
Mumbai attacks saying: "The Russian secret services have
information that certain groups that have carried out attacks
in Mumbai have contacts with Al-Qaeda."

"In particular, the terrorist group LeT. This group's
militants undergo special training in al-Qaeda camps, located
on the border between Pakistan and India," the official said.

Westerners in India's financial centre were targeted
in the spectacular attack comprised of multiple, simultaneous
assaults a signature of past al-Qaeda actions including the
September 11 attacks.

Professor Richard Bonney, another expert, compared the
Mumbai attacks to the deadly bombing of the Marriott Hotel in
Pakistan's capital Islamabad on September 20.

Bonney, the author of Jihad: From Qu'ran To Bin Laden,
said the difference was that in Mumbai there were co-ordinated
attacks and Westerners were singled out as hostages.

Among the dead were nine foreigners, 14 police
personnel, a home guard jawan and 104 members of the public.

"This attack looks more dangerous and better planned,
though not directed against possible government targets but
economic ones and of course the 'Western allies,'" he said.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who has just
wound up a visit to Afghanistan feels the Mumbai attacks bear
some hallmarks of al-Qaeda network.

"It is very premature to start talking about links to
al-Qaeda. Some of the names of groups that are being
circulated at the moment are not al-Qaeda affiliates, but that
cannot be taken as a definite view," he said. PTI