This chapter analyzes the July 7, 2005 suicide bomb attacks against four London transportation targets that killed over 50 people and injured hundreds others. It was among the most important operations directed by core al Qaeda leaders in years following the events of September 11th 2001. Initially, the incident was dismissed by the authorities, pundits and the media alike as the work of amateur terrorists--untrained, self-selected and self-radicalized, "bunches of guys" acting entirely on their own with no links to any terrorist organization. Evidence presented here, however, reveals a clear link between the bombers and the highest levels of the al Qaeda senior command, then based in the lawless border area separating Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Bruce Hoffman is the director of the Center for Security Studies and the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service and a senior fellow at the U.S. Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center. He previously was scholar-in-residence for counterterrorism at the Central Intelligence Agency between 2004 and 2006. He is the author of Inside Terrorism.

The 7 July 2005 London Bombings
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