An article in today's New York Times says that British investigators have linked the Glasgow car bombers and the failed London car bombers to Al Qaeda in Iraq. The two key plotters were a British-born Muslim doctor and an Indian-born Muslim aeronautical engineer.

LONDON — Investigators examining the bungled terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow six months ago believe the plotters had a link to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which would make the attacks the first that the group has been involved in outside of the Middle East, according to senior officials from three countries who have been briefed on the inquiry.

The evidence pointing to the involvement of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia includes phone numbers of members of the Iraqi group found on the plotters’ cellphones recovered in Britain, a senior American intelligence official said.

British authorities have said that the plotters, Bilal Abdulla, a British-born doctor of Iraqi descent, and Kafeel Ahmed, an Indian aeronautical engineer, parked two vehicles laden with gas canisters and explosives near a popular nightclub in central London at the end of June. The cars, apparently positioned to strike people leaving the nightclub, failed to ignite.

The next day, the two men rammed a Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas canisters into the Glasgow airport. It erupted in flames, and the driver, Mr. Ahmed, was severely burned and died several weeks later.

(Photo credit: Mark Runnacles. Photo caption: On July 1, [2007] a day after a Jeep Cherokee rammed into a terminal at the Glasgow airport, investigators marked evidence at the scene.) 

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