al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri said his terror network carried out the July 7 London bombings in a statement broadcast on an Arab satellite television station, marking the group's first direct claim of responsibility for the attacks that killed 52 people.

The Egyptian-born militant also criticized the legitimacy of Sunday's Afghan parliamentary elections and condemned Pakistan for forging strong ties with the United States.

"The blessed London attack was one which al-Qaeda was honoured to launch against the British Crusader's arrogance and against the American Crusader aggression on the Islamic nation for 100 years," al-Zawahri said in the tape aired on Monday on Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV.

Shortly after the London bombings, which were carried out by four bombers including two of Pakistani descent, two militant Islamic groups said they were responsible, but both had made dubious claims in the past.

The tape, only five minutes of which were shown, appeared to have been made recently as al-Zawahri referred several times to Sunday's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, which he said were held "under the terror of warlords." He was apparently referring to still warring factions in Afghanistan who were behind the Central Asian country's civil conflict of the 1990s.

Al-Zawahri also slammed Iraq's January elections, which Sunni Muslims boycotted amid threats of attacks by al-Qaeda's frontman there, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Zawahri also criticized the United Nations for praising the US running of the vote.

Britain was also denounced by the al-Qaeda deputy, who claimed British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government was planning to deport firebrand cleric Abu Qatada and nine other Islamic extremists detained in Britain in the wake of the July 7 bombings.

Spanish officials have described Abu Qatada as al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador in Europe."

'Bombers' dry run'

Also Tuesday, British police said three of the London suicide bombers staged a dry run to the capital just over a week before they blew themselves up on the transport network and killed 52 commuters.

Peter Clarke, head of Britain's anti-terrorist branch, said surveillance television footage showed three of the four bombers visited London on June 28 and spent nearly four hours travelling around the capital.

"The obvious suggestion is they possibly were conducting a reconnaissance on that day. We know that's part of terrorist methodology," said Clarke. "It was a dry run."

He said they travelled by train from Luton and arrived at Kings Cross station in London just before 9 am. They were then captured on closed-circuit TV cameras at Baker Street underground station and again at Kings Cross shortly before 1 pm.

He said two of the men were carrying rucksacks but there was nothing to indicate there were bombs inside.

Four British Muslims - Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain, Mohammed Sidique Khan and Germaine Lindsay - detonated homemade devices concealed in rucksacks on three underground trains and a bus at around 9 am on July 7.

Source: China Daily