The Prime Minister has also spoken of al-Qaeda links to the plot, and British intelligence services are working with counterparts around the world to establish the extent of suspected involvement by Osama bin Laden’s network or its Iraqi arm.

A week after the intended bombings in London and Glasgow, law enforcement officials say the evidence emerging is that the two doctors were the main operatives of a network of other medical professionals. Much still remains unknown about the plot, including whether it was planned inside Britain, in Iraq or elsewhere. Altogether, eight suspects in the case are in police custody. All are foreigners working for Britain’s state health system.

British investigators have concluded that the two men who carried out an attack at Glasgow International Airport last Saturday had sped there after a failed attempt to bomb a nightclub in central London, a British security official said on Thursday.

And for the first time, a neighbour and the police have provided descriptions of the two men held—Bilal Abdulla and Khalil Ahmed—saying they may have lived together intermittently in this placid neighbourhood outside Glasgow and that a Jeep Cherokee similar to the one used to crash into an airport terminal had been seen speeding around in the weeks before the botched bombing.

The manager of a local cab company said on Thursday that on two occasions from end-May to end June a taxi picked up the two men together, suggesting they could have been sharing a home here from time to time.

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