While police are jubilant following a series of successful armed raids across London they believe that the masterminds behind the London terror campaign are still at large.
The suspected July 21 suicide bombing team will be questioned today in the hope that they will disclose the identity of the bomb builders and planners behind last week’s failed attacks. It is also hoped that they know details of the deadly attacks on London’s transport system on July 7 that killed 52 innocent people.
Scotland Yard now believes that it has the four known failed suicide bombers in custody and has also arrested the mystery “fifth man”, alleged to be Whabi Mohammad, 22, the brother of Ramzi Mohammad, held in connection with the failed bomb at Oval station.
Three suspects were arrested in West London while a fourth man, thought to be the Shepherd’s Bush Tube bomber, was arrested by police in Rome acting on information from Scotland Yard.
After announcing the arrests, Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch, said: “We must not be complacent. The threat remains and is very real.”
The successful arrests ended fears that the men might use what explosive they had left to kill themselves, their captors or the families living alongside their hideouts.
Senior officers said that they were astonished and relieved that the suspects were all taken alive.
There was a scare for police trying to grab two of the bombers, who were at the same flat, when two children wandered into their line of fire.
Seconds later the two men appeared naked on the balcony of their fourth-floor apartment and surrendered without a struggle.
Italian police said that the last of the men to be picked up yesterday, Hussain Osman, a father of three, did not resist arrest. They say that he was trying to escape the intensive search and was not planning to stage attacks in Rome.
There is an investigation under way to discover how the Somali-born man who tried to blow up a train at Shepherds Bush managed to slip out of the UK when his photograph was at every port and airport.
He is believed to have gone first to Paris two days ago then on to Milan and finally Rome where it is understood his brother lives.
In a joint intelligence operation between Rome and London, agents were led to the address by monitoring the mobile telephone of the bomber’s brother. Police refused to say if Hussain Osman had been in contact with members of his cell before yesterday’s raids.
After their day of success, Scotland Yard will now have to concentrate on the dangers still facing the public. They still need to establish whether there are yet more explosives hidden by the cell and the identity of the mastermind.
The identity of the bombmaker remains a mystery, so too the quartermaster who obtained the explosive materials and other equipment needed by the cell.
Questioning of these suspects should also provide details of how the two cells behind the attacks on London’s transport system are linked.
The suspect bomber arrested in Birmingham earlier in the week, Yasin Omar, has already provided police with some information.
He is being held at Paddington Green top-security police station where the three men captured in London yesterday were taken. They are all being held separately.
It is believed that some members of their families are already in custody.
Relatives are understood to have given vital information that helped to end Britain’s biggest manhunt without further loss of life.
Yesterday’s raids came less than 24 hours after Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, promised police watchdogs that his officers were closing in on the would-be bombers.
On Thursday night SO13, the anti-terrorist branch, called in hundreds of officers for a top-level briefing on progress in the investigation.
The most dramatic capture came as police grabbed two of the runaway suspects in Notting Hill, West London, and it was seen unfolding live on television.
It was a call from a member of the public at 9.30am that Scotland Yard said “confirmed the intelligence that this was the building we wanted”.
Police marksmen surrounded a flat on a West London estate as fellow officers tried to evacuate as many homes as they could.
After days of raids and arrests across the capital and in Birmingham, the breakthrough for police came yesterday morning when officers are believed to have traced a telephone call to a hideout at Block K Dalgarno Gardens.
Terrified neighbours could clearly hear officers shouting for the occupants to strip to their underwear and surrender.
Tear-gas canisters had been fired into the property, which is understood to have been barricaded.
Inside was Muktar SaidIbrahim, 27, who is suspected of trying to detonate a nail bomb on a bus, and Ramzi Mohammad, the failed Oval bomber.
Police commanders realised that they could not risk a long stand-off. Terrorists in Madrid blew themselves up when police stormed the building.
Officers called both men by their first names but repeatedly warned them: “You must do as we say.” After a two-hour stand-off both gave up without a fight.
A witness said that they heard one of the men say: “I’ve got rights.”
Senior figures involved in the investigation believe that the five men may have lost their nerve after their failure on July 21. It is understood that the men in the cell began fighting about their next move and that two of them decided to attempt to escape rather than make another terror strike.
Barely a mile away at Tavistock Crescent, police are understood to have caught the fifth bomber, who had discarded his device in a nearby park before he could detonate it. He, too, gave up without a struggle.
Two women were seized at Liverpool Street station in London. Commuters said that the two — both thought to be of Somali origin — were seized by police and wrestled to the ground as they tried to buy tickets for the express service to Stansted airport.
It was a surprise announcement from Giuseppe Pisanu, Italy’s Interior Minister, that revealed that the last of the known suspects — Hussain Osman — a naturalised British citizen, had been picked up in Rome. Scotland Yard will seek his swift extradition under the European Extradition Warrant that came into effect in Italy only on Thursday.
According to initial reports, anti-terrorist units moved in on the suspect in a suburb of the capital. The minister said that the operation was continuing. He said that the arrest was the result of international collaboration and that the operation was “truly worthy of praise”.
Once in Rome, Hussain contacted his brother, the owner of an internet point near the central Termini rail station. Police also searched several homes in Rome in connection with the investigation.
The suspect was arrested with his brother at about 5.30pm local time in the Tor Pignatara district. He was questioned at the central police station, probably by the head of the anti-terrorism pool of prosecutors.
COUNTDOWN
11am Police mount armed operation in Tavistock Crescent, West London. A simultaneous raid is carried out at flats owned by the Peabody Trust in Dalgarno Gardens, close to Wormwood Scrubs prison
1.45pm Police announce a number of arrests in the operations
1.54pm Two women held by armed police at Liverpool Street station
2.45pm Two suspected July 21 bombers are among those held
3.20pm Police say two men were held at one address and a third at a second address after raids in West London
5.25pm Hussain Osman is arrested in Rome. He was alleged to be the Shepherd’s Bush terrorist
7.00pm Muktar Said-Ibrahim, 27, who allegedly tried to blow up a No 26 bus in Hackney, on July 21, identifies himself to police. The second man held in Dalgardo Gardens is Ramzi Mohammad, the alleged Oval Tube bomber
8.00pm a man arrested in Tavistock Crescent is named as Whabi Mohammad, 22. He is the brother of Ramzi Mohammad and is alleged to be the fifth bomber
