BIRMINGHAM and not London could have been at the centre of the 7/7 plot, according to a friend of bus bomber Hasib Hussain.
In an article in the Sunday Times, a friend of bomber Hasib Hussain who killed 13 people when he blew himself up on a bus in Tavistock Square, said the original target had been Birmingham’s Edgbaston Cricket ground at the time when England and Australia met during the Ashes Test.
The friend, who identified himself to the paper under the pseudonym of Ahmed Hafiz, claimed bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer had been ordered to target the Test players by al-Qaeda chiefs in 2004 when they attended a training camp in Kashmir.
He told the paper the two men were ordered to get jobs as stewards during the Test match where they would spray sarin gas inside the changing rooms of both teams.
He added the duo came into conflict over the plan after 22-year-old Tanveer objected to the plot. After coming to blows, al Qaeda chiefs revealed their number one plot had now changed to the London underground with the Test moving to Plan B.
Hafiz also told the paper Mohammed Sidique, who killed seven people after detonating a bomb on a westbound Circle Line train, was also a friend of Omar Sharif, who had attempted to blow himself up at a café in Tel Aviv. After his device failed he fled the scene and his body was found two weeks later.
He further claimed Sidique was put in contact with a bomb-expert from Birmingham during the planning of the London attacks.
