18 Alexandra Grove

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Every room was a bomb factory.

Officers found two kinds of high explosive, an improvised detonator, respirators and scraps of paper listing equipment needed and the quantities of chemicals to mix to make the bombs.

Hot plates linked to fans used to make the hydrogen peroxide more concentrated were found throughout the two-bedroom ground-floor local authority flat.

Plastic tubs containing a yellow-brown explosive sludge were left open in one of the bedrooms, while the lounge was littered with packaging from items bought for the bombs.

Curtains were taped to the walls to stop prying eyes seeing what was going on inside the flat.

The detonator was made from a lightbulb, wire, aluminium foil and a high explosive called HMTD, the inquest heard.

The respirators were used by the terrorists because the hydrogen peroxide gave off 'noxious fumes' as they boiled it down, killing plants outside one of the flat's windows and blistering the paintwork inside.

Dc Richard Reynolds noted: 'The environment that they are working in would have been quite hostile.'

The bombers - Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Jermaine Lindsay, 19, and Hasib Hussain, 18 - made no attempt to disguise their work at the flat, the inquest heard.

The police officer said: 'Within the actual premises itself, nothing was actually secreted or hidden.'

The main bombs used in the attacks on three Tube trains and a double-decker bus contained about 10kg of explosives made from a mixture of concentrated hydrogen peroxide and pepper and were detonated by a 9-volt battery.

Forensic explosives expert Clifford Todd said using this combination of materials for a bomb was thought to be "entirely unique" both in the UK and worldwide.
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He also agreed that the four July 7 terrorists would have needed 'guidance and instruction from elsewhere' to be able to make the devices.


This police graphic illustrates the chaos inside the flat used by the 7/7 bombers and how each room was used to aid the making of the bombs.

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Allegedly, 18 Alexandra Grove was flat owned by a housing association but apparently let to or in the charge of an Iraqi national named Shakir Mahmoud Al-Ani (AKA Adnan Shakri)

He in turn had let the property to an Egyptian biochemist student named Magdi El-Nashar.

Neither Shakir Mahmoud Al-Ani nor Magdi El-Nashar were in the country at the time of 7/7. El-Nashar claimed to have nothing to do with the property other than subletting it out to Hasib Hussein.

Shakir Mahmoud Al-Ani was once described as a 'respectable hospital consultant.' He may have had a business registered at 2A The Drive, Adel, Leeds, called Samara Medical Services.

Some other allegations about the pair:

Dr Shakir Mahmoud Hussain Al Ani. Born 1947, Iraq. Emigrated to Britain in the 1980s. Rented one of several properties he owns, in St John's Terrace, as well as the Alexandra Grove property to Magdy el-Nashar. Al Ani and el-Nashar had known each other for at least four years and had first met at the Leeds Grand Mosque.

(Dr) Samir Al Ani left for Baghdad two months before the bombings and had handed over the keys to Alexandra Grove flat to his (distant) cousin Shakir Mahmoud Alani.

Magdy Mahmoud Mustafa el-Nashar rented the Alexandra Grove flat around two or three weeks before 7/7. Had lived at 22 St John's Terrace before leaving for Egypt at the beginning of July. His study at the University of Leeds was sponsored by the National Research Centre in Cairo and was awarded a Bioscience Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship by Yorkshire Forward. He was awarded his PhD with a distinction on the 6 May 2005.

Jermain Lindsay spent time with Elnashar in Leeds, praying at the Grand Mosque which was directly opposite the terror base in 18, Alexandra Grove.

Elnashar's best friend was reported to be an "architect" named Abed Shad, aged 27.

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Magdy M El-Nashar had lived in North Carolina. He shared a phone number with a man named Khaled Elkamhawy, who had lived on Kennedy Blvd. in Jersey City, not a great distance from the Blind Sheikhs mosque and Sphinx Trading at 2828.