An author has claimed suicide hijackers were planning to attack Britain's House of Commons on September 11th.
Mr Rohan Gunaratna says he has discovered a group of al-Qaeda operatives were at Heathrow Airport but were thwarted after flights out of London were grounded following the US attacks.
He claims they were waiting to take over a jet and slam it into Britain's parliament when British air space was closed. The plan was intended to show the international reach of al-Qaeda, he said.
"This team assembled at Heathrow Airport on September 11th to conduct an airborne suicide attack on the Houses of Parliament," Mr Gunaratna, author of Inside al-Qaeda, told CBS News in the US.
But the al-Qaeda operatives had not expected flights in the UK to be grounded after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, and left Heathrow without accomplishing their mission. The alleged would-be attacker, Afroz Muhammed, was arrested in India.
Security agents in India showed documents to CBS that indicated he had confessed to the London hijack plan. Afroz has since retracted his confession.
Mr Gunaratna said Afroz attended flying schools in Britain, Australia and the US, and received money from al-Qaeda sources.
Mr Gunaratna said he studied intelligence documents and had access to serving and former members of Osama bin Laden's terror network when writing the book.
PA