Three Arrested in ’05 London Attacks
By Jeffrey Stinson
LONDON — Britain arrested three men Thursday in connection with the July 2005 suicide bombings that killed 52 people aboard London subways and buses and injured more than 700.
The coordinated blasts, the first suicide bombings in Europe, also killed the four bombers.
Metropolitan Police said two men, ages 23 and 30, were arrested as they prepared to board a flight for Pakistan at Manchester Airport. A third man, age 26, was arrested at a house in Leeds in northern England.
They are being held on suspicion of instigating, preparing or commissioning acts of terrorism. Counterterrorism police will question them in London. They can be held up to 28 days, after which they must be charged or released.
Police refused to give details on the suspects or what led to their arrests but said authorities also were searching five homes in Leeds and an apartment and a business in East London.
Nobody has been charged with the bombings on three subway trains and a double-decker bus as commuters made their way to work. Thursday’s arrests point to the possibility of a wider conspiracy that the Metropolitan Police said it has been investigating.
The British government’s official report on the bombings, issued last May, concluded the bombers probably had accomplices, possibly including a mastermind who had not been caught.
“This remains a painstaking investigation with a substantial amount of information being analyzed and investigated,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. “We need to know who else, apart from the bombers, knew what they were planning. Did anyone encourage them? Did anyone help them with money, or accommodation?”
The bombers — Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30; Shahzad Tanweer, 22; Hasib Hussain, 18, and Germaine Lindsay, 19 — were so-called homegrown terrorists raised in Britain. Khan, Tanweer and Hussain were of Pakistani descent and grew up in the Leeds area. Lindsay was born in Jamaica, raised in Britain and converted to Islam.
Khan and Tanweer visited Pakistan in late 2004 and early 2005, according to the British government’s report to the House of Commons. Khan might have had some terrorist training in Pakistan in 2003, the report said.
In a video played after he died, Khan praised al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahri praised Tanweer in a video played on the anniversary of the bombings last year.
The attack was followed two weeks later by what British prosecutors allege was a copycat attempt on London’s subway system. Six people are on trial now on charges of conspiracy to murder and set off explosions that could endanger lives. The explosives failed to detonate.
The defendants say they never intended to kill anyone; they just wanted to scare an already shaken city. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.