Two senior al-Qaida operatives in Saudi Arabia were suspected to make money transfers and use coded text messages to communicate with suspected terrorists in Britain before the July bombing attacks in London, The Sunday Telegraph said.

Among the two men, both of Moroccan descent, the newspaper said, Younis Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hayari, allegedly al-Qaida's leader in Saudi Arbia, was killed in Riyadh three weeks ago and Abdel Karim al-Mejati died in a shoot-out in the central al-Qassim region in April.

Saudi security officials suspected both men of involvement in the attacks in London on July 7 and 21 and said that al-Qaida is definitely operating in Britain, the paper said, quoting an official as saying "it's beyond doubt they're active in your country."

Scotland Yard, headquarters of Metropolitan police of London, is investigating who received the coded messages and money - transferred from Saudi Arabia to Britain via businesses at both ends before July this year, the report said.

"We are trying to establish whether the money was directly linked to the individuals who carried out either the first or the second sets of bombings in London," the paper quoted a Saudi Security adviser as saying. "The message and the money transfers were highly professional they were using SIM cards for six hours and then throwing them away.

In a recent interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the paper said, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to London, said that his country had warned Britain less than four months ago that such an attack was pending.

Source: Xinhua