The London bomb attacks last month took British police and intelligence services by surprise, Britain's top security official said yesterday, adding that investigators had yet to uncover the attackers' international links.
Fifty-two commuters died when four suicide bombers blew themselves up on three London subway trains and a bus on July 7. Three weeks later, four people failed to fully detonate devices on similar targets. The four men alleged to have carried out those attacks are in custody -- three in Britain and one in Italy.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke congratulated British police on the work they have done investigating the attacks, but acknowledged that police and security services had lacked prior intelligence about the strikes.
"There are a lot of people who believe that we know what is going on and simply aren't acting effectively enough to deal with it," Clarke told BBC radio.
"The fact is we did not know of these proposed attacks and that has been the very striking fact of what has taken place," he said.
Clarke said the government was investing more money in the intelligence services and policing, but added: "The fact is we do not know what people are planning, we can only investigate and hope to establish it."
Police have not charged anyone in the July 7 bombings. Three of the alleged July 21 attackers have been charged in Britain with attempted murder. The fourth suspected attacker is in custody in Italy, and Britain is seeking his extradition.
Clarke said he believed the two groups of bombers were likely linked, although investigators had found no proof of a direct connection.
"I think it would be very, very surprising if they weren't linked in some way," he said, before adding: "There is not a direct linkage yet formally established."
Clarke also said investigators were trying to determine if the attackers received support or training from outside groups, and suggested they may have been part of a wider network. But he added: "The full international links in relation to all this still remain to be fully clarified."
Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has previously stated that the attacks bore the "hallmarks" of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network which carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in the US in 2001.
Al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a video broadcast on Aug. 4, blamed the blasts on Britain's presence in Iraq, and warned of further attacks both in London and in the US.
Police have identified the July 7 bombers, aged 18 to 30, as three Britons of Pakistani heritage and a Jamaican-born naturalized Briton -- prompting fears of "homegrown" terrorism in the name of Islam.
Speaking right after his meeting Monday with police commissioner Ian Blair, Clarke admitted that the government remains "worried" by the prospect of a third attack on London.
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