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UK police detain three Underground bomb suspects

Three men faced police questioning yesterday after being arrested on suspicion of helping suicide bombers who killed 52 commuters on London public transportation in July 2005.

The three detained on Thursday -- two while about to board a flight to Pakistan -- were being held at a central London police station on suspicion of the "commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism" under the Terrorism Act 2000, police said.

"We will be speaking to them," a spokeswoman for the London Metropolitan Police told reporters, declining to say exactly when.

These were the first significant arrests since the July 7, 2005, attacks that killed 56 people, including the four bombers, on three London Underground trains and a bus.

Police sources were quoted by the Guardian newspaper as saying that the men were suspected of having knowledge of the plot and of helping to finance and house the bombers. They were not suspected of actually making the bombs nor of preparing additional attacks.

"We are not talking about a fifth, sixth or seventh bomber," a security source was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

Police quoted by the Times described them as "backroom boys" who could have provided support for the plot.

Two of the men, aged 23 and 30, were arrested at Manchester Airport, northwest England, as they were about to board a flight to Pakistan, while the third man, 26, was arrested at a house in Leeds, northern England.

Of the four suicide bombers who carried out the attacks in 2005, three were from the Beeston area of Leeds.

Under British anti-terror laws, the three men can be detained for up to 28 days, subject to regular court approval, before police must either charge or release them. Police have 48 hours before they must apply for an extension.

Searches were also being carried out at five houses in Beeston, including one on the street where one of the bombers lived with his parents, as well as at a flat in east London.

A search at a separate business premises in east London was concluded earlier.
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