Third Man Arrested in Failed London Attack

LONDON – British police arrested a third man in connection with last week’s failed attack against London’s transit system and said Sunday they were trying to penetrate what they suspect is an al-Qaida network behind the plot.

Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair expressed deep regret to the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian electrician shot dead by police on the subway Friday after he was mistaken for a terrorist. Blair called the killing a “tragedy,” but defended officers’ right to use deadly force against suspected terrorists.

The latest arrest was made Saturday in an area near London’s southern Stockwell neighborhood, Tulse Hill, where Menezes had lived and near the subway station where he was killed. The man was arrested “on suspicion of the commission, instigation or preparation of acts of terrorism,” said a police spokeswoman on customary condition of anonymity.

Police are still holding two men arrested in Stockwell on Friday, Blair said. None of their identities have been released.

Police also said they carried out several controlled explosions Sunday to destroy a package found in northwest London that may have been linked to devices used in the botched attacks.

Blair said he suspected an al-Qaida network was involved in last Thursday’s failed attacks. He had previously said al-Qaida was probably linked to the July 7 attacks as well in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people and themselves.

“The way in which al-Qaida operates is not a sort of classic cell structure,” the police chief told Britain’s Sky News television. “It has facilitators, so we’re looking for the bomb makers, we’re looking for the chemists, we’re looking for the financiers, we’re looking for the people who groomed these young people, so it will be a wide network that we’re trying to penetrate.”

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday the recent attacks in London and Egypt appear to be the work of al-Qaida.

Police were looking into possible links between the bombers who took part in the July 7 attacks against three subway cars and a bus and those involved in the failed July 21 bombings against identical targets.

Their investigation is focused on four suspects from the failed bombings whose images were captured by closed circuit television cameras and released Friday.

Blair appealed for help from Britain’s Muslim communities and said police were “still anxious for any sighting of the four individuals.”

In another possible connection, some of the July 21 attackers may have visited the same Welsh whitewater rafting center as two of the July 7 suicide bombers: Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shahzad Tanweer. The two bombers went rafting there on July 4, according to the National Whitewater Center.

Meanwhile, hundreds of relatives and friends of those killed in the July 7 explosions visited the sites of the attacks Sunday after they attended a briefing on the investigation. Many wept as they laid flowers at the bomb sites.

At the Stockwell station where Menezes was killed, there was also a tribute to him with flowers, cards, his picture and at least one banner with the Brazilian flag on it.

Muslim leaders, civil rights groups, and Brazil’s foreign minister demanded an investigation into the killing. Witnesses said Menezes, 27, was shot with five bullets fired to his head at point blank range.

“London’s minority communities are feeling anxious for their sons today,” said Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty.

Blair said he recognized that the shooting was going to be a matter of investigation.

“I’ve got to be very careful about what I say, what I prejudge,” he said.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who was visiting London, said his government and people were shocked by the killing.

“We can not recover the life of the Brazilian citizen who died, but it is very important to know all the details,” Amorim said after meeting a British official. He said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had expressed his regrets in a telephone conversation.

“This is a tragedy,” Blair said of the shooting. “The Metropolitan Police accepts full responsibility for this. To the family I can only express my deep regrets.”

But he defended the officers’ shooting to kill, saying they only did it when lives were believed to be at risk.

“It is drawn from experience from other countries, including Sri Lanka. The only way to deal with this is to shoot to the head,” Blair said. “There is no point in shooting at someone’s chest because that is where the bomb is likely to be,” Blair said.

Blair provided additional details Sunday on the events leading up to Menezes’ shooting.

Police had been watching the block of apartments on Scotia Road near Stockwell where Menezes was staying and later raided a home there. Relatives said Menezes had left the apartment where he had been living for almost four months with his two cousins and caught a bus to the subway station.

He was followed by surveillance officers as he boarded the bus and went to the station, and officials said his clothing and behavior at the subway stop added to their suspicions. Officers followed him into the station and then ordered him to stop, police said. Witnesses said Menezes ran into a subway car, where officers shot him.

It was unclear why Menezes, who spoke English, did not obey the orders to stop.

Menezes’ family said Sunday he could not get ahead at home in Brazil so he went to Britain to eke out a living as an electrician. He was hoping to return home with enough money to buy a small piece of land and settle down for good.

He had recently told family members he would have enough cash in a few years so he would never have to leave Brazil again.

Menezes’ cousin Alex Pereira, 28, said he had been working legally in Britain for three years and was thought to have been on his way to repair an alarm system in north London when he was shot.

—

Associated Press Writers David Rising and Patrick Quinn contributed to this story from London.