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Mystery of the last hours of failed suicide bomber found dead in sea
Relatives' DNA used to identify would-be British attacker in Israel
Chris McGreal in Jerusalem and Jeevan Vasagar
Tuesday May 20, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,959684,00.html
The DNA carried to Israel by British policemen answered one question about
the rapidly decomposing corpse found floating off a Tel Aviv beach a week
ago but it raised many more that may never be resolved.
Israel's state forensics institute yesterday confirmed a week of speculation
that the body hauled out of the sea was that of the missing British suicide
bomber, Omar Khan Sharif, the 27-year-old father of two from Derby who
slipped into Israel, strapped several pounds of explosive to his body three
weeks ago and then fought with the people he had been trying to kill when
the bomb failed to detonate. After that he ran off into the darkness.
Sharif's accomplice was more successful. Asif Hanif, 21, from London, killed
himself, two musicians and a waitress at a bar called Mike's Place on the
Tel Aviv waterfront.
The identification of Sharif's corpse ended a nationwide manhunt which had
baffled police because there had not been a single sighting of the wanted
bomber despite his passport picture peering from every Israeli newspaper and
the nightly television news. Now the security services are trying to
discover how Sharif's body came to be floating within sight of the bar he
tried to blow up.
Dr Yehuda Hiss, the head of the forensics institute who confirmed Sharif's
identity with DNA delivered to Israel by two British detectives, recorded
the cause of death as drowning. The police obtained a court order to prevent
Dr Hiss and other officials from discussing details.
That has not stopped security officials speculating. One theory has Sharif
running into the sea to escape after the failed bombing only to be swept
away by the area's notoriously strong currents.
Another has him drowned by his accomplices to prevent his arrest and
exposure under interrogation of the network that brought him from London,
and his contacts in the Palestinian territories.
Or perhaps Sharif could not face the shame of failing in his mission and
decided to commit suicide another way.
Radical Islamists in Sharif's home town have their own theory. They suspect
Israeli security forces murdered him.
Sharif and Hanif were known to MI5 before they set off on their suicide
mission. Sharif was a supporter of the radical Islamist group,
Al-Muhajiroun, and had been spotted handing out its leaflets outside a Derby
mosque. He had links to the controversial Finsbury Park mosque in north
London.
Hanif, a former Heathrow airport worker from west London, mixed in similar
circles. The pair made several trips to the Middle East, including Syria.
The two men slipped into Israel as tourists over the Allenby Bridge border
crossing from Jordan.
Israel's defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, claimed the explosives were smuggled
from Jordan hidden in copies of the Koran. He gave no clue as to how the
Israeli government knows this now if it did not at the time. Security
experts are sceptical. They note that it would be highly unusual for a
bomber to bring his own explosive.
The two men headed for Gaza. The army and immigration service control the
single border crossing into what many of its residents consider the world's
largest detention camp. But, again, neither man raised suspicion. There are
not many real tourists to Gaza these days but most foreigners who enter the
strip claim to be just that, whether they are aid workers or peace
activists. Sharif and Hanif are now known to have met Hamas militants.
They also went along to a meeting of the International Solidarity Movement,
a peaceful protest group against the occupation. The two called themselves
"alternative tourists" and gave no hint of their real mission, but the ISM
has paid the price of the fleeting association and is now effectively a
banned organisation.
Sharif and Hanif crossed back into Israel hours before they hit their
target, a bar on the Tel Aviv waterfront close to the US embassy and popular
with Israel's "Anglos" - those who speak English as a first language - and
foreigners.
Hanif's bomb detonated, Sharif's did not. Instead, he was pounced on by
terrified, angry people and in the ensuing fight dropped his passport as he
ran off.
Twelve days after the bombing, a corpse was spotted in the sea not far from
the beach next to Mike's Place.
"Our guys hauled it out of the water. It was so badly decomposed that you
couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman," said a police spokesman, Gil
Kleiman.
The forensics institute answered that question, but the face was
unrecognisable and there were no fingerprints left so the Israelis asked the
British authorities to obtain DNA samples from members of Sharif's family in
the UK. His brother, sister and wife all face charges under the terrorism
act.
While the confirmation of Sharif's death was met with approval and relief
among Israelis, in Derby there was shock and sadness. Councillor Abdul
Rehman, who knew Sharif's father Mohammed, a successful entrepreneur, said:
"I am really shocked. This is terrible news for his family and his two young
children. It's sad news for the local community."
But the London-based Islamist group, Al-Muhajiroun, yesterday continued to
parade Sharif as a role model for would-be British suicide bombers. Last
night Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, leader of Al-Muhajiroun, was travelling to
Derby o host an Islamic seminar. The cleric, who said both men had come to
him for Islamic instruction, claimed Sharif remained a role model for
"martyrs".
"The fact that he took this step towards paradise makes him an example for
many Muslims, to consider how somebody could think seriously about life and
the meaning of life, and sacrifice his life for the sake of God."
Omar Abdullah, the Al-Muhajiroun spokesman in Derby, said many Muslims
believed Sharif may have been killed by the Israeli security services.
"People are unsure how he could have ended up drowned and many have
speculated whether he may have been captured, tortured or even killed by the
Israeli security services. To die through drowning is still an act of
martyrdom, we believe," he said.
Guardian Unlimited
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