Analysis: Britain under siege

By Anna Tomforde London (dpa)

The techniques of bomb-making resembled those of Baghdad and Bali. "The terror tactics of Baghdad have been imported to Britain," says the government's top security adviser.

The dramatic images of the attempted car firebombing of Glasgow airport have brought home to Britons that their country is now the target of the same al-Qaeda terror tactics screened daily on their TV sets from Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is a development politicians and security chiefs had long feared and foreseen, but somehow always hoped they would never have to confront.

But the pictures of three attempted massive car bombings in London and Glasgow, within two days, have forced honest answers.

"Nobody believes any more that these are a few misguided young Muslims downloading information from the Internet and going out to become mass murderers," said John Stevens, the former head of Scotland Yard who is now the government's adviser on international security.

British-born al-Qaeda terrorists had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and were instructing local cells, said Stevens on Sunday.

The techniques of bomb-making resembled those of "Baghdad and Bali," he said. "The terror tactics of Baghdad have been imported to Britain."

His sober assessment and frank admission gave a hint of the scale of the task that is facing the new government of Gordon Brown, in what some commentators have described as a "baptism of fire" for the new leader.

Brown, who took over from Tony Blair just a few days ago, Sunday described Britain's threat from terrorism as "long-term and sustained."

He rejected suggestions that terrorist acts could ever be justified by perceived grievances the perpetrators might harbour, whether they were over Iraq, Afghanistan, or more personal concerns.

"Terrorism can never be justified as an act of faith. It is an act of evil in all circumstances," said Brown, who has chaired emergency cabinet meetings and attended Scotland Yard briefings throughout the weekend.

He appealed to the nation to stand together and said it was vital to secure the support of the mainstream of moderate British Muslims, while isolating the "few extremists."

But terrorism could not be fought by military, police and intelligence means alone, it was also a "battle for hearts and minds," said Brown - in what commentators said was a departure from the more soundbite-dominated, hardline style of his predecessor.

Anyone who expected a sudden drop in the threat to Britain after Blair's departure would be disappointed with the dramatic escalation, said the Observer newspaper Sunday.

But the reality was that militant Islam "is not something that evaporates simply because of the arrival of a new prime minister, said the Observer.

"This is why the long-term view taken by Britons whose phlegmatic calm so discountenances the foreign media is the right one," said the paper.

Experts predict that Brown, who has won total support from opposition parties for his handling the crisis, will make a serious attempt at involving the Muslim community in the struggle against terrorism, while at the same time seeking to harden legal measures.

Blair, in a TV documentary to be screened Monday, said he believed Britain had already lost the battle against Islamic terrorism.

"The reason we are finding it hard to win the battle is that we are not actually fighting it properly," Blair said. "We're not actually standing up to these people and saying 'It's just your methods that are wrong, your ideas that are absurd'," said Blair in the Channel 4 documentary, excepts of which were published Sunday.

Brown, facing the new challenge of mass-murder car bombings, was expected to display "solidity and weight" in his approach to the crisis, commentators said.

He would be keenly aware of the fear of a "backlash" amongst Britain's overwhelmingly moderate Muslim leaders, who have said they are "seething with anger" at those who are "brainwashing" young people into acts of mass murder.

Brown, while vowing that Britain will not yield to al-Qeada terrorism, must nonetheless be aware that a link was being made with Iraq - by the media and the public, commentators said.

Recent reports have said that plans to cut troop levels in Iraq to just 1,500 within the next 12 months are under discussion by the government and defence chiefs.

"Brown will tread gently, but firmly, over Iraq, he will not make great noises about it, but he will bring the troops home," said Martin Woollacott, a leading British analyst on the Middle East.