LONDON, 27 July 2005 — In another day of fast developments, Scotland Yard yesterday said they believed they had found the bomb factory where the five devices, which failed to explode in last Thursday’s second wave of attacks on the London transport system, were made.
At the same time police confirmed that they know the identity of the remaining two bombers, after naming Mukhtar Said Ibrahim and Yasin Hassan Omar yesterday. Anti-terrorist Branch experts now believe the four men indeed did intend to be suicide bombers, which is why they left so much information about their identity.
They point to a motley of similarities between the failed bombers of 21/7 to those who wreaked carnage only two weeks earlier on 7/7 in which 56 people died and over 700 were injured. Police are concerned that because so much materials have been found in different sites, the four fugitives have the capability to plan further attacks. The four are believed still to be in London, possibly hiding in a safe house.
Police know that the four will have to break cover sooner or later, and have again appealed to the public and to the relatives of the four would-be bombers to come forward with any information. More than 3,000 police are on the streets of London participating in Britain’s largest ever manhunt. Police continue to raid and search various houses in London, and have applied for a 24-hour extension to further question three of the five people arrested over the weekend.
In fact, in a statement yesterday, the family of Mukhtar Said Ibrahim expressed their shock at seeing his CCTV picture as a suspect bomber, and stressed that they do not condone terrorism of any kind. It was they who immediately contacted the police with the information and urged other families to do the same.
Both Omar and Ibrahim came to Britain in 1992 as dependents of asylum seekers. As such they are both legally in the UK. Perhaps the irony is that Omar has been living on social security and housing benefits of 75 pounds per week; and Ibrahim was granted British citizenship only a few weeks ago. Ibrahim, believed to be the ringleader of the would-be bombers, has been alienated from his family since 1994, and is believed to have shared a flat with Omar.
It was from the very Flat 58 in Curtis House in New Southgate that forensic experts yesterday removed several boxes of potential hardware and chemical components for making bombs. The flat was in the name of Somali-born Omar. They are also searching an underground car park linked to the flat where some of the components may have been stored.
Police also blocked off the North Circular Road in East Finchley in North London yesterday after seizing a white VW Golf , which they believed was used by the would-be bombers.
Prime Minister Tony Blair hosted a summit with the two opposition leaders at Downing Street to agree on a consensus to fast-track key new tough anti-terrorist legislation. The key features of this legislation is to outlaw the incitement of terrorism; the recruitment and training for the purposes of terrorism; and the preparation of a terrorist act.
Meanwhile, the family of a Brazilian electrician shot dead by London police by mistake rejected the apologies of British authorities and is considering filing a lawsuit against them, a family member said.
“We cannot accept (the apologies). They’re pigs. They shoot first and kill an innocent person, then they say ‘sorry,’” Vivian Menezes, cousin of deceased 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes, told Brazil’s Globo News television from London.
