Was London bombing accused a US informer?

London: An American national who trained the July 7 London bombers in Pakistan, has been quietly released before his jail term is over, raising questions whether he was a US informer, a media report on Monday said.

The Guardian reported Mohammed Junaid Babar, described as an 'American jihadist', has been quietly released after serving only four and a half years of a possible 70-year sentence.

Babar was reportedly sentenced to "time served", because a New York judge described as "exceptional co-operation" that began even before his arrest.

This, the newspaper reported, "raised questions over whether Babar was a US informer at the time he was helping to train the ringleader of the 7 July tube and bus bombings".

Babar was imprisoned in 2004 after pleading guilty in a New York court to five counts of terrorism.

The report said that he set up the training camp in Pakistan where Mohammad Sidique Khan and several other British terrorists learned about bomb-making and how to use combat weapons.

The newspaper reported: "Babar admitted to being a dangerous terrorist who consorted with some of the highest-ranking members of al-Qaida, providing senior members with money and equipment, running weapons, and planning two

attempts to assassinate the former president of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf.

"But in a deal with prosecutors for the US attorney's office, Babar agreed to plead guilty and become a government supergrass in return for a drastically reduced sentence".

The Guardian, the report said, had obtained a court document which shows that on 10 December last year six years after his initial arrest and subsequent guilty plea he was sentenced to "time served" and charged USD 500 by the court in a "special assessment" fee.

The document also reveals that Babar had by then spent just over four years in some form of prison and more than two years free on bail.

Graham Foulkes, a magistrate whose 22-year-old son David was killed by Khan at Edgware Road underground station in 2005, told the newspaper: "People get four and a half years for burglary. They can get more for some road traffic offences. So for an international terrorist who's directly linked to the death of my son and dozens and dozens of people to get that sentence is just outrageous."

Fifty-two people were killed and 784 injured on 7 July 2005 when four suicide bombers detonated rucksacks filled with explosives and nails on London's transport system in the morning rush hour.