US prosecutors accuse top Al Qaeda leaders in NY subway bomb plot

US prosecutors accused top Al Qaeda leaders Wednesday in an alleged attempt to bomb New York's subway, saying the failed plot was part of a Pakistan-based campaign against US and British cities.

The indictment dramatically broadened the case in which Afghan immigrant and Colorado resident Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to set off explosions in the metro system in 2009.

"The charges reveal that the plot ... was directed by senior Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan and was also directly related to a scheme by Al Qaeda plotters in Pakistan to use Western operatives to attack a target in the UK," the Department of Justice said in a statement.

At a time of increasing "homegrown" terrorism incidents, the indictments underlined the US view that ruthless foreign-based Al Qaeda groups, rather than a rag-tag and amateurish collection of US residents, are the main threat.

Adnan El Shukrijumah, Adis Medunjanin, Abid Naseer, Tariq Ur Rehman and a fifth man known as "Ahmad" were charged with 10 counts.

The indictment said Shukrijumah, who is accused of being an Al Qaeda operations leader, and Ahmad "recruited and directed (Medunjanin, Zazi and Ahmedzay) to conduct a terrorist attack in the United States."

The New York plot was linked to the British plot by Ahmad, prosecutors said. Ahmad, an accused Al Qaeda facilitator in Peshawar, Pakistan, communicated with Zazi about the New York plot and with Naseer about a British plot, they said.

Naseer and Rehman were among 12 men detained on terrorism charges after a raid in England in April 2009.

Shukrijumah has also been linked by US authorities to other terrorism suspects, including a group of men accused of planning to bomb fuel pipelines at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Agencies