Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

London terror attacks

Suspects held in failed bombings

British police say the four men seen in footage from July 21 are in custody following raids in London and Rome.

LONDON - Police swooped down on a posh London neighborhood and traced cell phone calls across Europe to a Rome hideout Friday, netting the remaining suspects in the failed transit bombings without firing a shot. The arrests capped an eight-day manhunt that was one of the most extensive in British history.

At least three of the four suspects were of East African origin.

Black-clad police armed with stun grenades and gas masks pointed assault rifles at the doors of suspects on the outskirts of Notting Hill. Two young children stumbled into the standoff a floor below a suspect's apartment, and an armed officer tried to shoo them away from his dog.

Above them, a police team shouting for "Mohammed" forced two suspects to strip to their underwear and emerge onto a narrow balcony, where television cameras recorded them with their hands above their heads.

In Rome, police arrested a Somali-born British citizen at the apartment of his relative, who was also taken into custody. On Friday night, a police expert - wearing white gloves and a jumpsuit to avoid contaminating possible evidence - could be seen working inside the apartment.

Images captured on closed-circuit television cameras during the failed July 21 attacks helped lead investigators to the men, and interrogations of the suspect captured first, 24-year-old Yasin Hassan Omar, may have helped as well.

Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's antiterrorist branch, sounded a cautionary note as he announced the arrests.

"Despite the progress that has been made with the investigation, we must not be complacent," Clarke warned. "The threat remains, and is very real."

Authorities have been looking for a link between the failed July 21 attacks and the July 7 suicide bombings, which killed 56 people, including the four bombers. Three of the suicide attackers had links to Pakistan.

One man arrested in the apartment complex identified himself as Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, Clarke said. Police believe he planted explosives on the No. 26 bus in Hackney, east London. Ibrahim, also known as Muktar Mohammed Said, immigrated from Eritrea in 1990 and became a British citizen in 2004.

The second man arrested at the complex identified himself as Ramzi Mohammed, Clarke said, and police accuse him of carrying explosives into the Oval Tube station. He is believed to be the man shown on closed-circuit footage wearing a "New York" sweat shirt.

On Wednesday, police in Birmingham arrested Omar, a Somali citizen with British residency who is suspected of trying to blow up the Warren Street subway station.

In a separate raid, a third man was arrested at another apartment complex, also on the outskirts of Notting Hill. Police said only that he was not seen in the closed-circuit TV images.

Investigators speculated a fifth bomber was involved after finding an unexploded bomb in a park near where Friday's raids occurred.

A fourth man - identified as Somali-born Briton Osman Hussain - was arrested in Rome, Italian authorities said. Hussain is accused of planning to plant a bomb at Shepherd's Bush Underground station in west London. He is believed to be the man seen on closed-circuit television carrying a backpack.

Clarke said Britain will ask Italy to extradite him.

London police told Italian officials a call intercepted at one of the botched bombing sites came from a cell phone that belonged to someone in Rome, RAI state TV reported. Two days ago, the cell phone moved from London to Paris, then Milan, then to the apartment in Rome, RAI said.

Italian police raided the apartment Friday, where they found Hussain with the cell phone, RAI said. The Italian news agency ANSA said he offered no resistance.

The raids near Notting Hill lasted for nearly four hours and began when neighbors heard a loud explosion and cracks that sounded like shots.

Police shouted at the suspects in one apartment, calling for "Mohammed" to emerge, said one witness, Nicolas Holliman.

Separately, two women were taken into custody at London's Liverpool Street train station under antiterror laws. It was not clear whether they were detained in connection with the attacks. One woman was believed to have been in line for the Stansted Express, which goes to an airport outside London, when she was arrested.

Scotland Yard declined to comment on the arrest in Zambia of a British man sought in connection with the July 7 bombings. British investigators reportedly believe Haroon Rashid Aswat, 31, had been in telephone contact with some of the four suicide attackers.

Aswat told investigators he once was a guard for Osama bin Laden, Zambian security officials said.

In Brazil, thousands of mourners crammed into a hilltop cemetery in the town of Gonzaga, showering roses on top of the coffin of Jean-Charles de Menezes, who was shot a week ago in Britain after being mistaken for a terrorist.

Police estimated more than 10,000 people passed by the coffin earlier at the Sao Sebastiao Church in Gonzaga. The town's population of 6,000 swelled by more than 2,000 people, and many decided to pass by the coffin more than once, police Capt. Murilo Castro said.

Though no protests were planned, residents hung signs showing they are still outraged that British police pumped eight bullets into the Brazilian as he boarded a subway train on his way to work. His relatives dispute accounts that Menezes was wearing a bulky jacket and ran from police.

YASIN HASSAN OMAR

Arrested Wednesday. Accused of Warren Street station attack.

MUKTAR SAID IBRAHIM

Arrested Friday in London's Notting Hill. Accused of No. 26 bus attack.

RAMZI MOHAMMED

Arrested Friday in London's Notting Hill. Accused of Oval Tube station attack.

OSMAN HUSSAIN

Arrested Friday in Rome. Accused of Shepherd's Bush station attack.

[Last modified July 30, 2005, 01:10:15]