Intelligence Services Look at Possible Threat to Uk Targets

Britain's security and intelligence agencies - MI5, MI6 and GCHQ - have launched their own investigation into the Mumbai terrorist attacks and its implications for the UK, Whitehall officials said yesterday.

They are studying the tactics of the terrorists and investigating how they were financed, Whitehall counter-terrorist officials told the Guardian. They want to know precisely what links there were with Pakistan-based militant groups, and any potential new threat to British targets abroad as well as in the UK.

Officials said yesterday the first question they want answered is whether there was any British link to the terrorists. They said there was no evidence so far of such a link, but would keep "an open mind".

The British agencies' inquiry will go ahead, whether or not any evidence emerges of a British connection between the Mumbai terrorists, officials said.

The terrorists adopted guerrilla-style tactics similar to some previous terrorist attacks in India, Pakistan and the Middle East, but very different to suicide bombers who have planned to strike targets in Britain, and succeeding on one occasion - July 7 2005 in London.

The assumption in British intelligence circles is that the Mumbai attackers were linked to Pakistan-based militant groups but they are unsure which ones.

From the outset, British officials suspected a Kashmir or Pakistan-based connection. Fahim Ansari, the captured Mumbai terrorist is reported to have confessed to having been associated with the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba. The question western intelligence officials were asking yesterday was whether other groups were involved. "It is very unclear who was in the loop," said one.

The Pakistan government has denied any knowledge of who carried out the attacks, and has recently taken steps to reform the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency.

However, elements within the ISI have traditionally had close links with Islamist militants, including the Taliban, and with groups attacking Indian targets in Kashmir and elsewhere.

British intelligence and security officials recently have been trying to establish relations with the ISI.