LONDON: Their prime minister doesn’t think so, but one month on, the vast majority of Britons see the conflict in Iraq as a major factor behind the London bombings. Prime Minister Tony Blair insists that ‘7/7’, as it’s dubbed by the British press, has its roots in the same terrorist minds as those behind the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, 18 months before the Iraq war.

“We’ve got to be very careful of almost giving in to the sort of perverted and twisted logic with which they argue,” Blair has warned, saying that troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are only an ‘excuse’ for terrorists.

But more than eight in 10 Britons disagree, according to polls indicating that most people think Iraq has helped in radicalizing young Muslims in Britain, some of them to the extent of being ready to be suicide bombers.

Experts also agree, even including the government’s own intelligence service MI5, which concluded that the Iraq war is the ‘dominant issue’ discussed by radicalized young Muslims.

The respected Chatham House foreign policy institute backs the view, saying that the war in Iraq gave a ‘boost’ to Al Qaeda and made Britain especially vulnerable to attacks.

“There is no doubt that the situation over Iraq has imposed particular difficulties for the UK, and for the wider coalition against terrorism,” it said in a report.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone weighed in Thursday, saying that Britain must withdraw its troops from Iraq in order to prevent further attacks and ‘make us all safer’.

“It’s about time that the government acknowledged, that the government must not completely ignore the Iraqi factor,” added Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain.

“There is no doubt that Iraq is an important factor in the disenchantment that we have seen among some Muslim youths.”

Chatham House also pointed to other directions to explain the targeting of London, notably the ease with which radicals could set up here until 2001, as British intelligence was preoccupied with Northern Ireland.

Of Britain’s main political parties only the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats actively opposed the war. —AFP