Sweden suicide bomber's British connections under investigation

Britain's security services were tonight investigating the UK connections of the suicide bomber who struck Stockholm on Saturday night.

Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, an Iraqi-born Swede, who set off a car bomb in the Swedish capital before killing himself with a second bomb strapped to his body, had a BSc in sports therapy from the University of Bedfordshire in 2004, and had spent some time in Luton in recent years. Well-placed Whitehall officials confirmed the bomber's identity and his link to a British university.

According to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, he had travelled to Britain and Jordan in the runup to Saturday's attack, in which he was the only victim. On an Islamic dating site, Muslima.com, where he was seeking a second wife, Abdaly, 29, listed Luton as his address, and said he met his first wife in Bedfordshire.

However, his car was registered in Sweden, and the motives declared in emails sent to a Swedish news agency and the security police, addressed local issues. The emails refer to a Swedish cartoonist, Lars Vilks, whose 2007 drawing of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog infuriated Muslims around the world, and to Sweden's 500 soldiers in Afghanistan. "Now your children, daughters and sisters shall die like our brothers and sisters and children are dying," the email warned.

The car bomb caught fire but did not explode and caused minimal damage in a busy Stockholm shopping street. Only one of several bombs Abdaly had strapped to his body blew up, killing him but nobody else.

Sweden's prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, cautioned that no connection between the emails and the bombs had been proved.

"We know that a man is dead. We know that a car exploded. We know that some threats has been given to the secret police and media," Reinfeldt said. "But we are not sure they are connected. And I think it's very important not to give final answers based on speculation."

British security and intelligence sources suggested Abdaly was one of an increasing number of individuals influenced by al-Qaida extremist ideology who have spent time in the UK.

However, the sources said there was no indication the bomber was directed by any al-Qaida leader. They said the bomber had probably been left to plan his own attack.

The fact that the Stockholm attack failed suggests al-Qaida is not in a position to train its supporters properly, British sources said.

Terrorism experts suggested al-Qaida and its allies were increasingly favouring one-man attacks on targets of opportunity, rather than long-planned, sophisticated and spectacular assaults such as 9/11.