Media profiles suspected bomber

Man killed after allegedly detonating twin blasts in Stockholm is said to have been a 28-year-old of Iraqi origin.

Sweden car blast
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Two people were slightly injured and the attacker died when two bombs exploded in a Stockholm street [Reuters]

Swedish police have said the man suspected of carrying out two bomb blasts in the Swedish capital has been “98 per cent identified” as Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly, a Swedish citizen with Middle East background who had lived in the UK for some time.

In addition to those details, international media has already published extensive reports about the alleged culprit, who would have turned 29 just a day after Saturday’s bombings.

He came to Sweden from Baghdad in 1992, and grew up in the town of Tranas in southern Sweden with his parents and an older sister.

He moved to England in 2001 to study physical therapy at Bedfordshire University. He lived in Luton, the town north of London where the four men who killed scores on board London’s public transport system in July 2005 boarded a train.

According to media reports citing people who knew Al Abdaly in Sweden, his personality changed after he moved to the UK.

“He must have met some people there who fooled him or indoctrinated him,” a source tells the newspaper Aftonbladet.

Aftonbladet reports that Al Abdaly lived in the UK with a Swedish wife with Middle East background and that the couple had three children, the youngest son born this summer.

The paper says he returned to Sweden about four weeks ago, without his family, and visited his parents in Tranas on Friday, a day before the bombings.

Looking for second love

On the dating website muslima.com, Al Abdaly had posted a profile saying he was looking for a second wife, “to join a lovely family and make it bigger”, and that his first wife had agreed.

“I am looking for a practesing Muslim, Sunni, love children and wants to please Allah before me,” the profile says in broken English.

“In the future, I am looking for to move to a Arabic country and settle down there… Hope you are a strong believer and striving for jannah [paradise].”

Reaffirming that he is Sunni Muslim, he categorises his religious views as “very religious” adding that he neither drinks alcohol nor smokes cigarettes.

On the social networking website Facebook – where his profile has been deleted – Al Abdaly was reportedly citing Muslim prayers as well as expressing views on the war in Iraq and urging boycott of Denmark, where controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed were published in 2006.

In late November, he posted a status update saying “God take my life when you are pleased with me,” according to the newspaper Expressen.

“God I dedicate all my deeds to you. God keep me away from falsehood,” the newspaper quotes him as writing.

Sky News reported that Al Abdaly had been turned away from an Islamic centre in Luton because of his extreme views.

Source: Al Jazeera