Al Qaeda Link to Attacks in London Probed

In his statements to interrogators in Rome, Hamdi has asserted that there was no connection between the two sets of attackers, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported, but that the July 21 would-be bombers decided to "take revenge on the English" for the anti-Muslim atmosphere following the earlier attacks.

"People gave us bad looks and made fun of us in the street, even women were mocked," said Hamdi, according to the newspaper. "We decided to react."

"We didn't have plans for afterwards," added Hamdi, who grew up in Rome and speaks fluent Italian. "Then I thought about going to Italy to my brother's place, but without explaining anything to him. It was only when we saw each other that I confessed to him that I was one of the people they were looking for in connection with the July 21 bombings."

Police are seeking to determine whether Khan and one of his fellow alleged bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, received instructions to carry out the July 7 attacks, as well as training in bomb-making, from al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. Both men visited that country late last year. So far, officials said, they have found no clear evidence to support that theory.

Still, they believe a foreign link exists. "We're looking for a mastermind because there's always a mastermind in these attacks, and we think he probably came from somewhere else," said a senior British official.

The Saudi connection is one possibility investigators are exploring. Saudi investigators traced the suspect communications and then informed their British counterparts, but did not hear back about what action, if any, the British took. "We said check out these numbers," the Saudi official said.

He said the calls to and from Saudi Arabia were linked to prepaid cell phones of Abdul Karim Majati, a Moroccan believed to be the head of the al Qaeda network in the Persian Gulf area, and to his associates. Majati was killed in April by security forces.

The calls between London and Saudi Arabia also involved cell phones tied to Younis Mohammed Ibrahim Hayari, another Moroccan al Qaeda leader, and his associates. Hayari, who topped Saudi Arabia's most wanted list, was killed July 3 in a shootout with Saudi security forces.

In some cases, the text messages used aliases to transfer money through a series of personal transactions, the official said. Al Qaeda has long used that system of moving money, known as hawala .

The calls dropped off in May, the official said, but are the center of renewed attention because of the July attacks here.

Tentative links between the London bombers and Saudi Arabia have begun to emerge. The Sunday Telegraph reported that Hamdi made a phone call to Saudi Arabia shortly before he was arrested Friday. The London Sunday Times reported that Ibrahim, the reputed ringleader of the July 21 group, visited Saudi Arabia in 2003, telling friends he went there to receive training.

The Saudi official confirmed both the phone call and the visit. He also said Saudi investigators were examining the travel of one of the July 7 bombers, Hasib Hussain, who transited through Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in 2004 on his way to Karachi, Pakistan.

In the days immediately after the July 7 attacks, British investigators searched for a man they believed had entered the country two weeks before the bombings, contacted Khan by phone, then left the country hours before the attacks. At one point, unnamed American counterterrorism officials identified Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, a British national who is wanted in the United States for allegedly seeking to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon in 1999, as the suspect and possible organizer. But British officials have since insisted they have found no evidence that Aswat, who grew up in the Leeds area and is reportedly a resident of South Africa, was in Britain before the attacks took place.

Zambian police arrested Aswat 10 days ago after he entered the country and are holding him pending an extradition request from the United States. British officials have said they would like to speak to Aswat about his reputed al Qaeda connections.

Officials have cautioned the British public to remain on alert for further attacks. Press reports said officials were planning to place teams of officers at every subway, rail and bus station on Thursday, two weeks after the July 21 botched attacks. Each of the two previous attacks, spaced two weeks apart, also occurred on a Thursday.

Special correspondent William Magnuson in Rome contributed to this report.