By Alan Cowell and Raymond Bonner The New York Times
TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2005
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LONDON With some fanfare in the weeks since the London bombings, the British authorities have quickly detained the main surviving suspects and, just as rapidly, embarked on a high-profile campaign to expel prominent foreign-born Islamic figures as part of promised measures against extremism.
But the investigation into the lethal July 7 attacks and the failed July 21 attacks seems to have undergone some less-publicized changes that have left important questions, in public at least, unanswered.
Some leads, once hotly pursued, have fizzled out. Others have proved to be blind alleys.
Investigators now doubt their early estimation that the two groups of attackers had an organizational link to Al Qaeda, a senior British police official said, though the attackers might have taken their inspiration from it. Nor have investigators identified any outside mastermind, or any evidence of an operational link between the groups of attackers.
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Since then, comparisons of the two sets of attackers have become more nuanced. The groups differed in makeup. Three of the four July 7 bombers, who died with their 52 victims in the Underground and on a double-decker bus in London, were from near Leeds in the north and were of Pakistani descent. The July 21 group, whose four bombs failed to go off in the London transit system, came from disparate areas, north, south and west of the British capital, and several of them were of African descent, from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
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link:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/15/news/britain.php~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will the real bombers please stand up!