Bombing suspect held in Rome

Published July 30, 2005

LONDON, July 29: British police on Friday arrested two more of the suspected bombers they had been hunting over failed attacks on London’s transport system. In Rome, Italy’s interior minister said another suspect wanted over the July 21 attacks had been detained in the Italian capital. A police source said the arrests in London were ‘potentially very significant’.

Armed police surrounded an apartment in the west of the city and a tense siege unfolded live on television, with one witness relaying via her mobile phone the shouts of police officials urging the suspect to surrender. Police said they had made three arrests at two different locations on Friday.

The BBC and Sky television said men suspected of trying to carry out attacks at the Oval underground railway station in south London and on a Number 26 bus had been detained.

WEST LONDON SIEGE: Police in black flak jackets and gas masks rushed into the housing estate in the Ladbroke Grove area, a few hundred metres from where a fifth bomb was found abandoned in bushes two days after the failed attacks.

Josephine Knight, 55, who watched the siege unfold through binoculars from her apartment directly opposite, said: “They blew the door off with plastic explosives, then threw in canisters of tear gas.

ROME ARREST: Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the suspect arrested in Rome was a naturalized Briton of Somali origin named Osman Hussain.

A municipal source said Hussain, 27, was arrested at a relative’s home in Rome.

Also in London on Friday, police arrested two women under anti-terrorism legislation at Liverpool Street station in the heart of the city and closed the complex.—Reuters

Opinion

Editorial

Kurram ‘roadmap’
Updated 25 Dec, 2024

Kurram ‘roadmap’

The state must provide ironclad guarantees that the local population will be protected from all forms of terrorism.
Snooping state
25 Dec, 2024

Snooping state

THE state’s attempts to pry into citizens’ internet activities continue apace. The latest in this regard is a...
A welcome first step
25 Dec, 2024

A welcome first step

THE commencement of a dialogue between the PTI and the coalition parties occupying the treasury benches in ...
High troop losses
Updated 24 Dec, 2024

High troop losses

Continuing terror attacks show that our counterterrorism measures need a revamp. Localised IBOs appear to be a sound and available option.
Energy conundrum
24 Dec, 2024

Energy conundrum

THE onset of cold weather in the country has brought with it a familiar woe: a severe shortage of piped gas for...
Positive cricket change
24 Dec, 2024

Positive cricket change

HEADING into their Champions Trophy title defence, Pakistan are hitting the right notes. Mohammad Rizwan’s charges...