Web site claim for attacks ‘serious,’ Britain says

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is taking seriously a group’s
Web site claim of responsibility for attacks on London that
killed at least 37 people and wounded 700, interior minister
Charles Clarke said on Friday.

A previously unknown group calling itself the “Secret Group
of al Qaeda’s Jihad in Europe” made the claim shortly after the
attacks on Thursday.

“The Web site claim is a serious one, so we will look at
that very closely but we haven’t eliminated any alternative
explanations. We’re looking at everything very widely,” Clarke,
the home secretary, told Sky News television.

Clarke said investigators also were looking into whether a
suicide bomber had caused the fourth blast which destroyed a
bus.

“The possibility of suicide bombings is being considered as
is every other possible detonation,” he said.

“The key thing is getting forensics from the scenes of
crime to try and understand how these bombs were detonated, who
put them there and … whether mobile phones were operated as
happened in the Madrid case,” he said, referring to the 2004
attacks in Madrid which killed almost 200.