LONDON — King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia accused Britain on Monday of failing to act on information the Saudis provided that might have averted London's deadly July 7, 2005, suicide bombings.
Abdullah told the British Broadcasting Corp. that Britain was not doing enough in the war on terror. He made the comments in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, hours before arriving in London for a state visit.
"I believe that most countries are not taking this issue too seriously, including, unfortunately, Great Britain," he said through a translator. "We have sent information to Great Britain before the terrorist attacks in Britain, but unfortunately no action was taken, and it may have been able to avert the tragedy."
The king did not specify what information Saudi Arabia provided. However, the BBC reported Abdullah's remark related to a long-held Saudi leadership claim that it gave Britain informationthat might have averted the 2005 attack.
Months before the July 7, 2005, attack when four suicide bombers killed 52 people and woundedhundreds on London's transit network, Saudi Arabia told the British and U.S. governments that it had arrested a young Saudi man who confessed to raising money for a terrorist attack in crowded areas of the British capital, officials have told The Associated Press.
The Saudis obtained information that the attack with explosives would involve a Syrian contact for financing and that at least some of the four attackers would be British citizens, according to officials in several countries with direct access to the information. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was classified.
The officials said at the time that the investigation had not connected any players from the July 2005 attacks to the original Saudi warning and that the information provided in December 2004 did not provide attackers' names, a date, specific location or time of attack.
They said the information gleaned from the suspect after his capture as he returned to Saudi Arabia included enough details to heighten British concerns about the possibility of an attack around July 2005 in crowded areas of London, including in nightclubs.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 10/30/2007