Masked armed police officers drive through a cordon in west London July 29, 2005 (REUTERS)
LONDON (AP)- Police said on Saturday there would be no let up in their massive anti-terrorist operation despite the capture of the four men suspected of trying to bomb London”s transit system.
Scotland Yard police headquarters appealed to the public to remain vigilant, fearing further terrorist cells could be planning an attack. Detectives were questioning the three men captured in England, hoping to learn who recruited and supported the July 7 and July 21 bombers, and how many others could still be out there.
Officials said they would ask Italian authorities to extradite Osman Hussain, a Somali-born Briton suspected of trying to attack London”s Shepherd”s Bush subway station.
He was arrested in Rome on Friday after police traced his cell phone calls.
London has been on edge since four suicide bombers attacked three subway trains and a bus during rush hour in central London on July 7, killing 52 people. The botched attacks two weeks later, in which the bombs only partially detonated, took no lives but was a stark indication the terror threat was not over.
"The threat remains, and is very real," said Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard”s anti-terrorist branch on Friday. "We must not be complacent".
The investigation has moved swiftly. On Wednesday, anti-terrorist officers in Birmingham, central England arrested Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, a Somali citizen with British residency, after subduing him with a stun gun. He is suspected of trying to bomb a subway train near Warren Street station.
On Friday, police wearing black ski masks and body armor and armed with machine guns surrounded the Dalgarno Gardens apartment block near Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London.
Officers quietly evacuated local residents, as television crews that had already gathered at the scene complied with a police request for a news blackout. Witnesses said police blasted their way into an apartment with a small explosive device and fired CS gas. Two men emerged onto a balcony, bare chested and with their arms up and were swiftly arrested.
Police said one of the men identified himself as Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, the man suspected of planting explosives on the No. 26 bus in Hackney, east London, last Thursday. Also known as Muktar Mohammed Said, he came to Britain in 1990 from Eritrea and was granted British citizenship in September 2004.
The second man identified himself as Ramzi Mohammed and is suspected of trying to blow up a subway train at the Oval Tube station. He was captured on CCTV cameras on July 21 running through the station, wearing a "New York" sweat shirt.
The apartment complex is not far from Little Wormwood Scrubs park, where police last week found a dark backpack containing a fifth bomb. Meanwhile, dozens of officers swooped on the nearby Tavistock Crescent apartment complex, on the edge of the chic Notting Hill neighborhood. Some officers wore gas masks, others carried sniper rifles and took aim from behind parked cars during the raid.
Scotland Yard declined to name the man arrested there, but citing police sources, the British news agency Press Association identified him as Wahbi Mohammed, 23, the brother of the suspected Oval Tube bomber.
In Rome, Hussain was arrested after police traced his cell phone calls across Europe. The ANSA news agency said he was arrested at his brother”s apartment. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi hailed Hussain”s "very important arrest» as the fruit of a «brilliant anti-terrorism operation".
Police inspect the Rome apartment following the arrest of Somali-born Briton Osman Hussain 29 July 2005, suspected of being the fourth and last bomber in a series of failed attacks in London on July 21 (EPA)
Italian police officers hold up photos of a man identified as Somali-born Osman Hussain, one of the four suspects in the July 21 bombing attempts in London (AP)