British police arrest suspected train bomber

By Michael Holden and Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) – Police arrested a man on Wednesday they
believe planted a bomb on a London underground train last week,
but warned three other suspects still at large could attack
again.

It was the first time police arrested a suspected bomber
since four suicide bombers killed 52 in London on July 7 and
four more devices failed to explode two weeks later.

Anti-terrorist police chief Peter Clarke said the arrest of
Yasin Hassan Omar in a dawn raid in the central English city of
Birmingham was an important development in Britain’s biggest
ever manhunt.

But he urged the public to remain watchful and alert a week
after three bombs on underground trains and a fourth on a bus
failed to detonate. He appealed for information on three other
men suspected of planting bombs at the same time as Omar.

“I must emphasize that until these men are arrested they
remain a threat,” told a news conference.

The botched bombings on July 21 came two weeks after four
suicide bombers killed 52 people in three underground trains
and a bus. Police have linked the suicide bombers to al Qaeda.

Clarke said police used an electric stun gun to disable
Omar before taking him to a central London police station.

Omar, 24, was being sought over an attempted attack on
Warren Street underground station. He came to Britain from
Somalia as a child.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “I think it is an important
development … Obviously we are greatly heartened by the
operations today.”

The American TV channel ABC, citing investigation sources,
said detectives probing the first bomb plot on July 7 had found
16 ready-made bombs in a car rented by one of the attackers.

Some were packed with nails to act as shrapnel, ABC said.

POLICE SWOOP

The BBC said Omar was wearing a rucksack when he was
arrested in Birmingham. The bombers in both sets of attacks
carried bombs in rucksacks, police said.

Three other men were detained at another address in the
Birmingham area and were taken to a local police station.

London police said they arrested three women on suspicion
of harboring offenders in a raid linked to the July 21 attacks.

The women were arrested at a public housing estate in the
Stockwell area of south London. Witnesses told Reuters that
police armed with automatic weapons and shotguns handcuffed the
women before taking them away.

Police last week published photos of the four main suspects
in the July 21 attempted attacks from images captured on
security cameras and appealed to the public to report any
sightings but not approach the men.

Newspapers reported on Wednesday that another prime suspect
had served a jail sentence for knifepoint robberies.

Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, wanted over an attempt to plant a
bomb on a bus in last week’s failed attacks, was jailed for 5
years in 1996 for mugging people when he was part of a teenage
gang, the Daily Telegraph said.

The Home Office (interior ministry) said Ibrahim arrived in
Britain from the East African country of Eritrea in 1992.

Both Omar and Ibrahim came to Britain as child refugees
from East Africa.

The investigation was dealt a public relations blow last
week when undercover policemen shot dead a Brazilian
electrician at a London underground railway station, mistaking
him for a bomber.

Before the body of Jean Charles de Menezes was taken home
to Brazil on Wednesday, the lawyer representing his family
said: “A man has died who has committed no crime.”

“There is … very little public discussion as to whether
those who killed him themselves committed a crime,” Gareth
Peirce told reporters.