Author:
Publication: AFP
Date: February 17, 2002
British extremists have been involved
in weapons training with assault rifles at a mosque in London, a British
Sunday paper said.
Intelligence sources quoted by the
Observer said that militants practised with Kalashnikov AK-47s at the Finsbury
Park Mosque in North London as part of recruitment to fight alongside Osama
bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The revelations will renew pressure
on the British government to crack down on militants using Britain as a
base, the paper said.
MI5 Intelligence Service recruited
worshippers at the mosque who opposed the hardline stance taken by the
controversial Cleric Abu Hamza, the Observer said.
The intelligence recruits then monitored
practices at the mosque which include the stripping and reassembling of
Kalashnikov rifles in the basement, the paper said.
Abu Hamza, the most influential
and radical of the prayer leaders at the mosque, said on Saturday that,
as far as he knew, no harmful activities had ever taken place there.
Abu Hamza, who is wanted on terrorist
charges in Yemen told the Observer that the mosque may have been the victim
of a smear campaign by foreign agents.
Last month the Observer revealed
that a video showing the execution of Algerian conscripts had been circulated
at the mosque.
Abu Hamza denied it had ever been
used for recruiting purposes.
