Report: MI5 wasn't tracking 7/7 bombers

LONDON, May 19 (UPI) -- The ringleaders of the July 7, 2005, London terrorist bombings were not being tracked by the British spy agency MI5, a report to Parliament indicates.

A second report about the bombings authored by the House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee found that Mohammed Siddique Khan and his second-in-command Shazad Tanweer were never identified as "essential" terrorism targets in the run-up to the deadly bombings, The Times of London reported Tuesday.

Thus, the pair weren't being actively watched by MI5, which in fact was tracking only one of the 20 people found to have been involved in the bombings, which killed 52 and injured 1,000 others, the report said.

MI5 chief Jonathan Evans told Parliament his agency could not have tracked all of the 7/7 suspects in 2004 and 2005 because it didn't then possess the ability or resources to monitor anyone not directly associated with an imminent terror plot.