British intelligence warns of Al Qaida plans to attack merchant shipping

Al Qaida plans to target merchant shipping throughout the Middle
East.

British intelligence has determined that Al Qaida intends to attack merchant
ships in the Mediterranean in an attempt to disrupt global trade.

The intelligence also warns of Al Qaida plots against commercial ships in
the Pacific Ocean and the Persian Gulf.

"We have got an underlying level of intelligence which shows there is a
threat," British Chief of the Naval Staff Adm. Alan West said. "What we've
noticed is that Al Qaida and other organizations have an awareness about
maritime trade. They've realized how important it is for world trade in
general."

West told Lloyd's List maritime newspaper that Al Qaida could be plotting an
attack against shipping in the Straits of Hormuz, between Iran and Iraq.

He also cited a threat to ships in the Straits of Gibraltar.

Over the last two years, Al Qaida has attempted several major naval strikes.
In April 2004, Al Qaida-aligned operatives detonated three boats filled with
explosives near Iraq's Basra oil terminal. In 2002, Western intelligence
agencies helped Morocco foil an Al Qaida strike against NATO warships off
the Straits of Gibraltar.

British officials in London generally confirmed the intelligence assessment.
They said the Malacca Straits are also said subject to an Al Qaida threat,
but that there is no new intelligence regarding a specific strike.

U.S. intelligence has already warned of an Al Qaida naval threat in the
Malacca Straits and Persian Gulf. The U.S. Fifth and Sixth Fleets have been
on alert for an Al Qaida attack in the northern Gulf as well as in the
western Mediterranean Sea.

In the interview, West said strategic sea-lanes, including the Straits of
Hormuz and the Strait of Gibraltar, were prime Al Qaida targets because of
the heavy traffic in these areas. He said the threat also applies to the
Malacca Straits in East Asia.

"We've seen other plans from intelligence of attacks on merchant shipping,"
West said. "I can't give you detail on any of that, clearly, but we are
aware that they have plans and [that] they've looked at this."

Al Qaida attacked the USS Cole and killed 17 U.S. sailors in a suicide
bombing in 2000 in the Yemeni port of Aden. Two years later, Al Qaida
crashed a boat filled with explosives into the French supertanker Limburg
off the coast of Yemen.

In September, a Yemeni court sentenced to death two Al Qaida operatives
convicted of the USS Cole attack.