UK airline bomb plot suspects charged

Britain charged eight British Muslims yesterday with plotting to blow up planes after police found bomb-making equipment, suicide notes and "martyrdom videos".

Three others were charged with terrorism-related offences by police investigating a suspected plot to attack several airliners flying from Britain to the United States.

US officials have said the plot to use liquid explosives could have caused a disaster on the scale of the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Eight suspects were charged with conspiracy to murder and preparing acts of terrorism, prosecutor Susan Hemming said. They are accused of plotting to smuggle parts of home-made bombs onto planes, then build the bombs and detonate them.

The charges come 13 months after four British Islamist suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 other people during rush hour on public transport in London. Two left videos saying they acted to punish Britain for its foreign policy.

Peter Clarke, head of London police's anti-terrorist branch, said police had seized a huge amount of equipment and evidence, including "martyrdom videos" - an apparent reference to testaments by would-be suicide bombers - in 69 searches of houses, businesses, vehicles and open spaces.

They had found bomb-making equipment, chemicals including hydrogen peroxide, electrical components and documents, he said.

A 17-year-old man was charged with possessing items useful to a terrorist, including a book on home-made bombs, suicide notes, wills "with the identities of persons prepared to commit acts of terrorism" and a map of Afghanistan, prosecutors said.

Two other suspects - including the mother of an eight-month-old baby - were charged with failing to report the plot, Ms Hemming said.

Of the 23 British Muslims arrested in the operation, 11 are being held pending a decision whether to charge them. Another woman was released without charge.