Mideast doctors held over British attacks
Pastor Dale Morgan
Mideast doctors held over British attacks*
LONDON (AFP) - - British police held doctors from Iraq and Jordan on
Monday among eight suspects detained after failed car bomb attacks in
central London and in Glasgow.
Amid fast-moving developments in the police hunt, news reports suggested
most of the suspects were of Middle Eastern origin, while one source
told AFP that a bomb factory near Glasgow supplied all the attacks.
The eighth suspect was detained in an overseas country, though police
declined to specify which one for operational reasons. In accordance
with force policy, the man detained was not identified.
The latest arrest followed the detention Sunday of two other men, aged
25 and 28, outside Glasgow in connection with the two failed car
bombings in London and a botched attack on Scotland's busiest airport.
On Saturday, a blazing car loaded with gas canisters ploughed into the
door of the main terminal of Glasgow airport, just a day after two
Mercedes cars laden with gas canisters and nails were found abandoned in
the capital's entertainment district.
Britain remains on the highest national security threat level, meaning
another attack is feared to be imminent.
"I'm very encouraged by the progress" made in the investigation, said
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who made a defiant statement to lawmakers.
"It is through our unity that the terrorists will eventually be
defeated," she said.
Seeking to ease fears of a new Al-Qaeda-style campaign, the government
called a new meeting of its so-called COBRA crisis cell, the fifth in
four days.
The suspects in custody include a Jordanian surgeon named by officials
in Amman as Mohammed Jamil Abdelkader Asha, and his wife. The
Jordanian's offices in a British hospital were searched Monday.
British media identified one of the two Glasgow attackers as an Iraqi
doctor named Bilal Abdulla.
British police refused to comment on BBC reports that all those arrested
were from the Middle East.
Police said however there are "ever clearer" links between the Glasgow
attack and the failed bombings in London, adding that both the
investigation into the London attacks, as well as the Glasgow attempt,
had been placed under the control of the Metropolitan Police's
Counter-Terrorism Command.
The first arrests were made on Saturday when police detained the two men
who drove a Jeep Cherokee into the doors of Glasgow airport's main
terminal. One of them remains in critical condition in hospital with
severe burns.
Police were given permission Monday to detain the pair for a further
five days under British anti-terror laws.
Hours later anti-terrorist officers arrested a 26-year-old man and a
27-year-old woman, believed to be Asha and his wife, on a motorway in
northwest England. They are now being questioned in London.
The fifth suspect, a 26-year-old man, was arrested at Liverpool's Lime
Street Station on Saturday night.
On Monday, police carried out another controlled explosion at Glasgow
airport, the second there in two days.
A security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the "bomb
factory" which produced the explosive ingredients for both the London
and Glasgow attacks was near the Scottish city.
Police underlined the speed of developments.
"This continues to be a fast-moving investigation and I am grateful to
the public for their perseverance and support during these difficult
times," said Assistant Chief Constable John Malcolm of Strathclyde Police.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair last Wednesday,
hinted that Al-Qaeda-linked militants may well be behind the attacks.
"It is clear that we are dealing in general terms with people who are
associated with Al-Qaeda in a number of incidents that have happened
across the world," he said Sunday.
Some commentators have cast doubt on how well-trained the London and
Glasgow attackers were.
London's Evening Standard newspaper reported that the London bombings
failed to explode because of a technical problem with mobile phones,
left in the cars, that were supposed to detonate them.
The perpetrators called one of the mobiles twice and the other four
times. Neither detonated, and detectives used the calls logged to trace
those responsible, the paper said.
The attacks prompted the government to raise the security alert level to
"critical" for the first time since last August, and about a week before
the second anniversary of the July 2005 London bombings that killed 52
commuters.
The British alert has also triggered alarm abroad.
The United States beefed up security at airports and Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff said Sunday that extra US air marshals were
being deployed on flights to Britain.