Osman Hussain (Hamdi Issac, maybe), by varying accounts born in Ethiopia or Eritrea, was captured at his brother's home in Rome and quickly gave the lie to Tony Blair's claim that that there was no connection between the invasion of Iraq and the London bombings. Brian Brady and John Phillips report in the Scotsman that

Anti-terror police in the Italian capital say Osman Hussain has told them that the "bombers" watched videos of British and American troops "exterminating" Iraqi women and children before embarking on the attack on London's transport network on July 21.

Osman has supposedly made a number of declarations to Italian prosecutors. Since his statements are secret under Italian law and since there are significant variations in the newspaper accounts, it's hard to know how much credence to give to any of this—

• Muktar Said Ibrahim (or Muktar Mohammed Said) was the ringleader of the "Notting Hill cell" to which Osman belonged
• "Muktar always had new films on the war in Iraq. He showed us especially those in which you saw women and children killed and exterminated by the English and American soldiers, or widows, mothers and daughters who were crying."
• The conspiracy involved many more than the four suspects named in the July 21 attack.
• The bombers did not intend to kill but to "sow terror."1
• The group had no link to the Pakistanis alleged to be responsible for the July 7 bombings.

There are possible links to Saudi Arabia. According to Catherine McAloon of the AP,

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that police discovered that Hussain called a telephone number in Saudi Arabia hours before his arrest. The Sunday Times said that another bombing suspect, 27-year-old Muktar Said Ibrahim, captured Friday in London, went on a monthlong visit to Saudi Arabia in 2003, telling friends he was to undergo training there.

Related post
Blair contradicted by MI5 (7/29/05)