More bombers may try to strike-London police chief

By Michael Holden and Katherine Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) – London’s police chief warned Britons on
Thursday that more cells of would-be bombers could strike as
police made nine arrests in their hunt for the men behind
failed attacks on the city’s transport system last week.

Commissioner Ian Blair said the capital had been lucky that
bombs on three underground trains and a bus had not exploded
fully on July 21. Three men still wanted for the attacks
remained a danger and might not be the only threat, he said.

“It does remain possible that those at large will strike
again. It does also remain possible that there are other cells
that are capable and intent on striking again,” he told a
police authority meeting.

The failed attacks came exactly two weeks after another
team of suicide bombers killed 52 people in the capital. Police
say four British Muslims carried out those bombings, which they
have linked to al Qaeda.

The two waves of attacks have put London on high alert,
with police maintaining a high profile around the city.

“This is not the B-team, these weren’t the amateurs,” Blair
said of the second group of attackers. “They made a mistake –
they only made one mistake and we’re very very lucky.”

Police arrested nine men in Tooting, south London, on
Thursday morning, bringing to 20 the number of people being
held in connection with the failed July 21 attacks.

Police said the nine did not include the three suspected
bombers they are still hunting. They arrested one of the four
prime suspects in a dramatic dawn raid on Wednesday.

They hope the arrest of Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, will provide
a breakthrough in the search for the three other suspects.

Blair said his force was reviewing 15,000 closed circuit
television tapes, had taken 1,800 witness statements and
received 5,000 calls to its anti-terrorism hotline.

HIGH POLICE PROFILE

Police swarmed across the city where residents have become
used to the wail of sirens in recent weeks as members of the
public report abandoned packages or people acting suspiciously.

Officers, some brought in from outside London, patrolled
the streets outside stations, an unusual sight for commuters.

British Transport Police said some leave had been canceled
as the force stepped up its high-profile campaign.

“We are on very high alert. It’s part of a continuing
effort to have high-visibility policing on stations,” a
spokesman said.

Opinion polls show a majority of Britons fear Islamist
militants could wage a sustained campaign against their
country.

Newspapers published front-page pictures of a ready-made
nail bomb found in the boot of a car that had been rented by
one of the July 7 attackers. They showed a bottle studded with
nails to act as shrapnel.

But a police spokeswoman denied a report there were 16
ready-made bombs in the car. Apart from the nail bomb,
investigators found bits of explosives and other components.

Omar, who came to Britain from Somalia as a child refugee,
was wanted in connection with an attempted attack at London’s
Warren Street underground station on July 21.

Armed police used a stun gun when they arrested him in a
raid on a house in the central English city of Birmingham.

Police were under pressure to exercise caution after they
shot dead Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in London on Friday
because they mistook him for a suicide bomber.

Newspapers quoted unidentified security sources as saying
police thought Omar might have had a bomb in a rucksack in the
house but were under orders to capture him alive.