suicide car bomber killed at least nine people in an attack on a military airport in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said, the latest incident of violence and protests since copies of the Koran were inadvertently burned at a NATO base last week. There was no official indication the explosion at the gates of Jalalabad airport was linked to other deadly protests and riots, although the Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack as "revenge" for the Koran burning. Anti-Western fury has deepened significantly since the desecration of the Muslim holy book at the main NATO base in Afghanistan. Twelve people were wounded by the suicide bomb at the airport and casualties appeared to be civilians and Afghan soldiers who were guarding the gate, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. A spokeswoman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is capital, said the explosion did no damage inside the military airport, which is used by ISAF troops. Riots have raged across Afghanistan over the past week despite widespread apologies from U.S. leaders, including President Barack Obama and military commanders. On Sunday, seven U.S. military trainers were wounded when a grenade was thrown at their base in Afghanistan's north. Chants of "Death to America" have been common at protests and some demonstrators have raised the white Taliban flag. With few signs of the crisis abating, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said the United States should resist the urge to pull troops out of Afghanistan ahead of schedule. "Tensions are running very high here. I think we need to let things calm down, return to a more normal atmosphere, and then get on with business," Ambassador Ryan Crocker told CNN's "State of the Union" in an interview from Kabul. "This is not the time to decide that we are done here. We have got to redouble our efforts. We've got to create a situation that al Qaeda is not coming back," he said. Under an international agreement, foreign combat forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, a process which is already underway. WIDESPREAD ANGER The groundswell of anger over the burning of the Koran, which Muslims revere as the literal word of God, has highlighted the challenges ahead as Western forces try to quell violence and bring about some form of reconciliation with the Taliban. The protests have killed more than 30 people and wounded at least 200, including two U.S. troops who were shot dead by an Afghan soldier who joined rallies in the east. In an interview from Rabat, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the violence "is out of hand and it needs to stop". The shooting at close range of two U.S. officers deep inside the heavily fortified Interior Ministry in Kabul on Saturday has intensified the sense of unease among Westerners and deepened the divide with their Afghan counterparts. The attack illustrates the dilemma faced by NATO forces as they move away from a combat role to an advise-and-assist mission, which will require them to place more staff in Kabul's ministries. With the 2014 timetable unfolding, pressure is growing for an earlier pullout, especially among Washington's allies in Europe, where the bloody and expensive war is deeply unpopular. The high-level killings prompted NATO, Britain and Germany to withdraw their staff from Afghan ministries. The Taliban also took responsibility for the Interior Ministry attack, although the Islamist group often exaggerates claims involving attacks against Western forces. On Sunday, the ministry said one of its employees was a suspect in the shooting of the two U.S. officers. Afghan security sources also identified Abdul Saboor, a 25-year-old police intelligence officer, as a suspect in the shooting of the Americans at close range inside the interior ministry. The ministry said the suspect had fled. CCTV footage showed that Saboor had access to the Command and Control Centre, tucked deep inside the ministry, where the slain Americans were found, security officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly urged calm and restraint in the face of bloody protests, although he also maintains that those who burned the Korans must be prosecuted. In Washington, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman said the Afghan defense and interior ministers were postponing scheduled trips to the United States this week to talk with other Afghan leaders about how to protect ISAF troops and quell the violence. The United States is by far the largest contributor to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, which is gradually ceding security responsibility to Afghans. Under an agreement reached at an international conference in Lisbon in December 2010, the NATO force is to wind down its combat operations by the end of 2014, although there are signs that process may be hastened. Earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta suggested the United States could end its combat role as early as next year, remarks that surprised allies in Europe and Kabul. Similar incidents of desecration of the Koran in the past have also sparked violence, although not as widespread and persistent as the riots and protests over the past week. Last April, seven foreign U.N. staff were killed when protesters over-ran a base in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif after an obscure pastor from a fringe church in the United States deliberately burned a copy of the Koran.

Another eight U.S. servicemen have been wounded in violent protests that have engulfed Afghanistan following the burning of Korans last week. The soldiers were injured when demonstrators in Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, threw a grenade at their base, provincial police chief Samihullah Qatra told reporters. At least two demonstrators were also killed in the northern province as the sixth day of deadly protests over the burning of Qurans and other religious materials at a U.S. base raged.

They entered through Russell Square station. For 10 minutes, the four of them sprinted along the tracks of the Piccadilly line towards a disused tunnel at Holborn. Their prize: a sight of one of the great trophies of London's urban exploration scene – the abandoned platforms of Aldwych tube station. The expedition last year was supposed to be the second last stop in a tour of the capital's 18 "ghost" tube stations. Instead it has sparked a legal battle over the human rights of a community of photographers dedicated to visually documenting restricted areas across the world – and pointing out security loopholes. To avoid a regular tube service, the explorers chose Easter Monday – four days before the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Above ground, one of the biggest security operations in the history of the Metropolitan police was swinging into action at an estimated cost of £20m. Officers searched lampposts and traffic lights for hidden bombs; 35 sniffer dogs scoured for traces of explosives; armed commandos trained to counter gun attacks and squads of police monitored the internet for potential plots. And below the city, four members of the London Consolidation Crew exploration collective were running on the tracks. Their expedition was between 2am and 3am, when only maintenance trains are in use. But as one explorer, Otter, wrote on his website, Silent UK: "At any moment the track on which we stood could have gone live, its guest of honour a 40mph mass of iron and steel singing our last goodbyes." From Holborn they noticed the rails turn rusty and saw piles of flyers collecting at the tunnel's edges. And then, like hikers who'd reached the best view from the mountain, they saw the forest-green tiles of the platform edge. For the next four hours they photographed the ticket halls, deserted walkways and antique lift system. Like their other trips – to the roof of St Paul's cathedral, the London Olympic Stadium, Battersea power station – they were careful to leave things as they found them; graffiti is taboo for urban explorers. When the battery on their camera went flat, they got ready to leave. They were interrupted by a shout: "Get on the ground!" CCTV operators had alerted British transport police, who had issued a terror alert. After infiltrating 200 sites across the city over 10 years and getting away with it, they were busted. "Normally we would have been dished off to the graffiti squad," Otter says. "But because of the wedding we ended up with detectives much higher up." The explorers were put in cells and interviewed. Their laptops, cameras and hard drives were confiscated. Otter says: "The police pretty quickly realised our intentions and let us go with a caution." Three months later an unassociated group of explorers was arrested after accidently derailing a small electric train on a one-off joyride on London's mail rail, a 23-mile underground network that carried post until 2003. The incident sparked an ongoing court case alleging damage to government property and aggravating vehicle taking. Trespassing According to Bradley L Garrett, an urban explorer who is writing a PhD on the phenomenon, the mail rail incident reignited Transport for London's interest in the Aldwych four. Last month TfL applied to issue anti-social behaviour orders which would not only stop them undertaking further expeditions and blogging about urban exploration but also prohibit them from carrying equipment that could be used for exploring after dark. Extraordinarily, it also stipulates they should not be allowed to speak to each other for the duration of the order – 10 years. "To me, telling people they can't associate with their closest friends is an incredible invasion of human rights," says Garrett. "It's a complete overreaction and an amazing tack to take after the group already agreed to a caution." He thinks TfL's legal action is fuelled by a wider misunderstanding of what urban exploration is about. "What we do is very benign," he says. "The motivation for it comes from a love for the city – we want to interact with its hidden histories and forgotten stories and places." A TfL spokesman said: "Trespassing on the tube network is illegal and extremely dangerous not just for the safety of the trespasser but also for the security of the railway. As several elements of the legal proceedings regarding the individuals who trespassed at Aldwych are ongoing we will not able to comment further until those have concluded." Garrett disagrees that the asbos will protect the explorers from themselves. "Urban explorers operate with almost the same safety that track workers operate with," he says. "We have the equipment, we know what we're doing, we have the map of the entire system memorised – we don't take unnecessary risks." The issue of under-prepared copycats is a sore point among urban explorers. In 2005, a 19-year-old woman died after breaking away from an underground party in the Odessa catacombs, a 2,500 mile tunnel network in Ukraine. Experienced explorers like those at Aldwych undertake painstaking research, training and equipment checks before each trip. For Garrett, part of the goal is helping to iron out the security loopholes they exploit. But this "service to the city" has proved a double-edged sword. "What this all comes down to is the Olympics because what we're doing could make London's security seem weak, which is embarrassing for TfL," he says. "But rather than stifling our free speech to tell Londoners there are security weaknesses all over the system, they should probably call us and bring us on as consultants to help fill these gaps." Despite the legal battles and tightening security, London's urban explorers do not seem deterred. "We're as active as we've ever been, we just don't share anything any more. We've been driven underground," Garrett says without acknowledging any irony. "Feeling you are pushing your mental and physical boundaries is what keeps people healthy and interested and turns them from inhabitants of a city to citizens – we are active citizens of London."

The Pentagon on Saturday decried as "unacceptable" the killing of two US military advisers in Kabul and called on Afghan authorities to better protect coalition forces and curtail raging violence. "This act is unacceptable, and the United States condemns it in the strongest possible terms," said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's spokesman George Little. The two Americans, working as International Security Assistance Force officers in the NATO coalition, were in the interior ministry when "an individual" turned his weapon against the pair, NATO said, without giving further details. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying it was in revenge for the burning of Korans at a US-run military base -- an incident that forced US President Barrack Obama to apologize to the Afghan people. Little said Afghanistan's Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak telephoned Panetta on Saturday and "apologized for today's incident" and offered condolences to family members of those killed. The shooting prompted General John Allen, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, to pull all NATO staff out of Afghan government ministries, a move Panetta supported. "The secretary supports the decision General Allen made to protect our forces by immediately recalling ISAF personnel working in ministries around Kabul." Panetta urged Wardak and "the Afghan government to take decisive action to protect coalition forces and curtail the violence in Afghanistan after a challenging week in the country," Little said. Wardak also assured his American counterpart that Afghan President Hamid Karzai "was assembling the religious leaders, parliamentarians, justices of the Supreme Court, and other senior Afghan officials to take urgent steps to do so," the spokesman added. The minister also "pledged his complete cooperation in investigating today's tragedy and in taking stronger measures to protect ISAF personnel," Little said. "The United States remains dedicated to working with the Afghan people against the common threat of violent extremism and to build an Afghanistan that can secure and govern itself."

Britons from around the world are travelling to Somalia to train as terrorists amid mounting concern that the country has become the "destination of choice" for extremists. Official sources say that Asians, north and west Africans, Bangladeshis and members of other ethnic groups in Britain have gone to Somalia to join the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group. Several British Muslim converts have also travelled to the lawless east African state, as well as Somalis living in Britain. Some were previously involved in London street gangs and turned to religious extremism in a bid to escape a life of crime. Prime Minister David Cameron, Home Secretary Theresa May, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other world leaders and top officials gathered in London today for a conference on tackling terrorism, piracy, famine and disorder in Somalia. Britain has already described Somalia as the world's "worst failed state" and discussions will focus on how to build a stable government and reduce the lawlessness which has allowed al-Shabab and pirates to thrive. One option under consideration is air strikes or commando raids, with one report claiming Attorney General Dominic Grieve has ruled that action would be legal under international law. The main British concern, however, remains Somalia's role as a terrorist training camp. About 50 Britons are thought to have gone there to fight since 2006. A key reason is that the country, which is usually reached via Kenya, is easier to enter than the terrorist training camps in Pakistan, where many of the plots against Britain were created. One report today claimed some of those going to Somalia had been sent by Islamist radicals in London gangs, although sources suggested this claim was overblown. They thought it more likely that some gang members had embraced radical Islam. Bilal al Berjawi, a British-Lebanese man from west London, was killed last month while fighting for al-Shabab. There are fears trained terrorists could return to Britain to attack the Olympics, although a bigger concern is a "lone wolf" attack by a self-trained militant.

When Jessica departed the US early in 2011, she left a country where illegal immigration is rarely off the political agenda. Little did she imagine she herself would become an 'alien' - in Mexico. She came to Puerto Vallarta, a tourist resort on the Pacific coast, to work legally for a Mexican company. She took a second job to earn extra money, first in an internet cafe and then a restaurant. Fines for overstayers But her employers - also Americans - never filled in the paperwork to make her second job legal. "I insisted, but they told me it wasn't necessary, that they would pay me in cash every night and it was fine," she tells the BBC. "It was clearly illegal for me to work there, but I did not take the authorities in Mexico seriously. My employers then found themselves in legal trouble and I feared I could face deportation, so I quit." Continue reading the main story Mexico City's bike revolution One Square Mile of Mexico Working Lives Mexico A Mexican footballing triumph Mexico's 2012 challenges Country profile: Mexico More from Mexico Direct Last year about 1,000 US citizens were questioned over irregularities in their immigration status, according to Mexican authorities. They face a modest fine - up to $50 - if officials find them working without a permit or living in Mexico without proper documents. Those who lose their visas or are asked to leave the country and then discovered to be overstaying are fined up to $400. But the National Migration Institute in Mexico has no idea just how many Americans are living or working illegally in Mexico. There are no advocacy groups defending American aliens in Mexico. Mexican politicians haven't raised it as a major issue - a far cry from the controversy around illegal migration on the other side of the border. With thousands of people from Central America crossing into Mexico illegally every year, and the threat from drug gangs and human traffickers on their way to the US, the presence of undocumented Americans is considered little more than a minor issue for Mexico's immigration services. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote No one really knows how many of them there are in Mexico.” Monica Mora National Institute of Anthropology and History Some are Americans tourists who decide to extend their stay in Mexico without notifying the authorities, or students who wish to earn extra money teaching English in Mexico City. Others just fall in love with the Latin American lifestyle. "No one really knows how many of them there are in Mexico. They are usually people who live for a while in Mexico and then return home. They do not stay indefinitely," says Monica Mora, an expert on American migration in Mexico. "Nowadays most Americans live legally in Mexico, working as employees of multinational companies for a couple of years here, but also retirees and students," says Mrs Mora, who is a researcher at the National Institute of Anthropology and History. Constant flow According to the last Mexican census (2010), more than 738,000 people born in the United States now live in Mexico. Some 60,000 of them are living in the country indefinitely, mostly in Baja California in the northwest of the country and in Mexico City. The rest are temporary visitors and legal employees of international companies. Most American visitors stay within the rules - but officials say thousands overstay Tropical weather, the cheaper cost of living and an exotic atmosphere a few hours from home have drawn curious Americans to Mexico since World War II. They are now the largest foreign group in Mexico, according to official records. Elaine Levin, an expert on international migration, was one of thousands of Americans who emigrated to Mexico 40 years ago. She came legally and now has Mexican nationality. She says the comfortable life of Americans in Mexico contrasts with the persecution and harsh immigration legislation Mexicans have to face in the US. Retirees' favourite "There havn't been any integration issues here because this has always been part of Mexico's history. Even the ancestors of a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, came to Mexico as immigrants," she tells the BBC. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote After my experience here I have come to support more illegal immigration” Jenny American overstayer "In fact, Mexico treats 'gringos' much better that the US does Mexicans," Mrs Levin says. There is little public debate about the issue - many Mexicans would be surprised that an American would want to come here and live illegally. The coasts of the Baja California peninsula, the idyllic town of San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico, and villages around Lake Chapala (by the Pacific coast) are favourite spots for retired Americans who come to spend their last years - and their life savings - in Mexico. "It's still to be seen whether the news reports about the drug violence from American networks will have an effect on this," Mrs Levin says. "Some people might think twice before going to some areas, but that hasn't happened yet," she adds. Even though US tourist numbers dropped 6% last year, towns like San Miguel de Allende are still full of American-run businesses and home owners from the US. Warm weather and an exotic lifestyle tempt some Americans south of the border Some Americans in Mexico are beginning to see a different side of the immigration debate. "I used to live in a large Mexican community, in Chicago. I always knew some of them were illegal and wondered how they could get away with it," Jessica says. She's now legally entitled to stay in the country and is living in Mexico City. "After my experience here I have come to support more illegal immigration. At the end of the day I would imagine most illegals have good intentions, working to support their family, wanting a new life," she says. "I don't think we should make it so hard for people to get that. Isn't that what America is all about anyway, freedom?"

Bombs and deadly shootings relentlessly pounded Iraqis on Thursday, killing at least 55 people and wounding more than 225 in a widespread wave of violence the government called a "frantic attempt" by insurgents to prove the country will never be stable. Cars burned, school desks were bloodied, bandaged victims lay in hospitals and pools of blood were left with the wounded on floors of bombed businesses after the daylong series of attacks in 12 cities across Iraq. The assault demonstrated how vulnerable the country remains two months after the American military left and put the onus for protecting the public solely in the hands of Iraqi forces. "There was no reason for this bomb. A primary school is here, students came to study and people came to work," Karim Abbas woefully said in the town of Musayyib, where he saw a car bomb parked near an elementary school kill three people and wound 73. Most of the injured in the town, located about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Baghdad, were schoolchildren. Other Iraqis, fed up with the continued violence, furiously blamed security forces for letting it happen. "We want to know: What were the thousands of policemen and soldiers in Baghdad doing today while the terrorists were roaming the city and spreading violence?" said Ahmed al-Tamimi, who was working at an Education Ministry office a block away from a restaurant bombed in the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah in northern Baghdad. AP Iraqi firefighters try to extinguish a... View Full Caption He described a hellish scene of human flesh and pools of blood at the restaurant, where another car bomb killed nine people and wounded 19. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, but car bombs are a hallmark of al-Qaida. The Iraqi Interior Ministry blamed al-Qaida insurgents for the violence. "These attacks are part of frantic attempts by the terrorist groups to show that the security situation in Iraq will not ever be stable," the ministry said in a statement. "These attacks are part of al-Qaida efforts to deliver a message to its supporters that al-Qaida is still operating inside Iraq, and it has the ability to launch strikes inside the capital or other cities and towns." Fifteen of the day's 26 attacks targeted security forces on patrols, at checkpoints and around government and political offices. Six policemen were killed at their checkpoint in northern Baghdad in a pre-dawn drive-by shooting. A suicide bomber blew up his car in front of a police station in Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, killing two and wounding eight. Such violence undermines the public's confidence in the ability of their policemen and soldiers to protect everyday citizens, and discourages people from joining or helping the security forces. All the casualties were reported by local police and hospital officials in the cities where the attacks took place. Most spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. A statement by the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya political party, the main opposition bloc to the Shiite-led government, called on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to accept full responsibility for protecting the public. "If the government fails to do so, then it should resign and the parliament should choose a government capable of confronting the terrorists and impose security and stability in all over Iraq," the statement said.

Simultaneous early morning attacks on mostly Shia targets across Iraq killed at least 60 people and wounded dozens on Thursday in one of the bloodiest days of violence since US troops pulled out in mid-December. The attacks that appeared to pitch al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim insurgents against Shia, raised fears of a return to the widespread sectarian carnage that tore Iraq apart and cost thousands of lives in 2006 and 2007. The violence breaks weeks of relative calm as Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Sunni leaders have sought to resolve a political crisis that threatened to unravel their power-sharing agreement following the US withdrawal. At least 32 people were killed in blasts in Baghdad where 10 explosions tore through mainly Shia neighbourhoods during rush hour and other attacks targeted police patrols, commuters and crowds gathered in shopping areas. “We were sitting at a restaurant having soup for breakfast when the bomb exploded. I lost consciousness and then saw smoke and dust when I came to. I saw people and body parts everywhere,” police officer Ahmed Kadhim told Reuters. Kadhim suffered shrapnel wounds to his left leg and back when a car bomb exploded near a restaurant killing six people and wounding 18 in Baghdad’s northern Kadhimiya district. The interior ministry blamed al Qaeda and affiliated armed groups for the attacks it said were an attempt to show that Iraq’s security situation remained unstable. The blasts hit just weeks before Baghdad plans to host an Arab League summit, which has been postponed because of regional turmoil and acrimony between Iraq’s Shia-led government and some Sunni Gulf states. “The attacks aimed to spark sectarian strife among the Iraqi people, and to prevent the Arab League meeting from being held,” Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi said. More than a dozen blasts and attacks hit other cities across Iraq from Mosul in the north to Hilla, south of Baghdad, many of them targeting police. The violence was aimed at Shia neighbourhoods but also against security forces, a frequent target of Sunni insurgents. Iraqi officials had predicted such groups would try to stir sectarian tensions with attacks after American forces went home. While violence has ebbed since the height of the war, Sunni insurgents affiliated to al Qaeda are still capable of large-scale assaults. Some rival Shia militias have said they will cease fighting since the US withdrawal. In Thursday’s violence, one car bomb in the capital killed at least nine people and wounded 27 in the upmarket Karrada neighbourhood, hurling shrapnel into the next street and blowing out glass from nearby buildings. Witnesses saw at least four wrecked cars full of shrapnel and bloodied seats near an ice-cream shop at the site of another blast. In at least three Shia neighbourhoods in Baghdad, nine policemen were killed, and in the capital’s northwestern Kadhimiya district, a car bomb killed six people when it struck a street lined with restaurants.

Indonesian forces backed by water cannons and armoured vehicles were locked in a tense stand-off outside a prison on Bali island Thursday after rioting inmates took control for a second night. Ousted prison guards and some 400 heavily armed police and military spent the night massed outside the notorious Kerobokan prison, which holds some 1,000 inmates, including 12 Australian drug mules. Security forces had stormed the overcrowded prison at dawn on Wednesday to wrest control after a night of arson and stone-throwing, only to lose it again late that night. "The prisoners took over the prison again, which forced security personnel to fire warning shots into the air," provincial military command spokesman Wing Handoko told AFP. With the prison sealed off by the inmates, it was not clear if there were any casualties inside. In the early hours of Thursday morning an AFP reporter heard three minutes of continuous gunfire unleashed by security forces. Shortly after, a flaming torch made of rags wrapped around a pole was flung from inside the prison and landed near a television broadcaster's vehicle, but was extinguished before the fire could spread. Shouting and the rattling of the prison's inner gates had been heard before police opened fire, but after the volley of gunfire silence descended on the jail, broken by police occasionally firing into the air. As dawn broke over a prison that has been without electricity since the trouble first broke out, police again moved armoured vehicles and water cannons outside the jail walls. The first riots were a distance away from the wings where the Australian prisoners are kept, but it was not clear whether the second night of trouble was any closer to quarters housing foreign inmates. All 12 Australian prisoners at Kerobokan, including two on death row and six serving life sentences, were safe after the first night's trouble, Australia's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

A Libyan diplomat who served as ambassador to France for Muammar Gaddafi died from torture within a day of being detained by a militia from Zintan, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday.

Zintan is the town where the late Libyan ruler's most prominent son, Saif al-Islam, is being held, and the former diplomat's death has reinforced concerns for the son's safety.

A preliminary autopsy report said Omar Brebesh, who was detained on January 19 in the capital Tripoli and whose body appeared in hospital the next day 100 km southwest in Zintan, had multiple injuries and fractured ribs.

secret US military report says the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are preparing to retake control of Afghanistan after Nato-led forces withdraw from the country. The report, The State of the Taliban 2012, is the latest of a series drawn up by aUS special operations taskforce on the basis of interrogations with 4,000 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida detainees. Its conclusions, that the Taliban's strength and morale are largely intact despite the Nato military surge, and that significant numbers of Afghan government soldiers are defecting to them, are in stark contrast to Nato's far more bullish official line, that the insurgent movement has been severely damaged and demoralised. The report, leaked to the BBC and The Times, also portrays the Taliban as being under the thumb of Pakistan's powerful security agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), but resenting that control. The BBC quotes the report as saying: "Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabated," and says Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders, some of whom live close to the ISI's headquarters, in Rawalpindi. The report also quotes a senior al-Qaida detainee as saying: "Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can't [expletive] on a tree in Kunar without them watching."He added: "The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad." A Pakistani government official rejected the report's findings, telling Reuters: "This is frivolous, to put it mildly. We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan." Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), confirmed the document's existence but denied that it was a strategic study of operations. "The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions," he said. "It's not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis." The report is the latest of a series aimed at providing an assessment of the insurgency on the basis of detainee interrogations, mostly at the Nato base at Bagram. The first, the State of the Taliban 2009, was drawn up by US academics attached to a special forces unit called Task Force 373, charged with hunting down Taliban commanders. That report was influential in convincing the British government at the time that a peace deal could be done with the Taliban. Sherard Cowper-Coles, the former UK special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said of the document at the time: "It paints a picture of the Taliban believing that they are winning in the long war, in the long game, though they suffer tactical reverses. "It shows that many of them are fed up with fighting; that some of them have suffered very painful losses. And it shows their real objection is to foreigners in their land, whether those foreigners come from Kansas or Karachi or Cairo. They are fighting as nationalists, and it does show that a deal could be done – but it doesn't show that a deal will be done."

Two of the men conducted a surveillance trip around central London and also talked about launching a Mumbai-style attack on Parliament. A “target list” was found at the home of the ring-leader which listed the names and addresses of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, as well as two Rabbis and the American Embassy. It had on it the letters ‘LXC’ for London Stock Exchange. Torn pieces of paper showed a sketch of what is believed to be a car bomb. Three other men met with the plotters and planned to travel abroad to get more training before returning to launch further attacks. Another two men pleaded guilty to associated charges. The men, from London, Stoke and Cardiff, were inspired by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and used their English-language magazine Inspire as a guide.