The Community Security Trust has confirmed that it was briefed on potential attacks on Jewish neighbourhoods in London after the discovery of papers on the body of Al Qaeda’s African leader, who was killed last year.
According to documents revealed by a Canadian newspaper this week, terrorists were planning an operation in Golders Green or Stamford Hill during Chanucah.
A CST spokesman said that the organisation had been “briefed on a confidential basis by the police about this information, suggesting the potential terrorist targeting of London’s Jewish communities when it was discovered last year”.
While the information was “worrying”, he said, “it does not fundamentally change the general threat that we have faced for some years now, and which guides all our security procedures and our work with the police.”
The documents were found on Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who was shot by Somali forces last year.
He was wanted by the United States for the bombings of its embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 and suspected to be behind the bombing of an Israel-owned hotel in Kenya in 2002.
The Toronto Star this week revealed the existence of the documents, which indicated potential targets in London including Eton School, the Ritz and Dorchester Hotels, as well as districts which the terrorists thought would be populated with “tens of thousands of Jews crammed in a small area”.
The CST urged the Jewish community to “remain alert, but not to be alarmed and to ensure that it continues leading its communal life to the full.
“We ask the community to fully co-operate with existing security measures and to report any suspicious activity to the police and to CST.”
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