Four linked to London suicide bombings
Four young, home-grown terrorists are believed to have carried out the London attacks – the first suicide bombings in Britain – which killed at least 52 commuters.
Details of the identities of the men, one of whom was still a teenager, began to emerge after a series of dramatic raids on homes across West Yorkshire.
Detectives have also revealed documents belonging to the four – aged between 19 and 30 and at least three of whom were British – were recovered at the scene of the four blasts.
Shahzad Tanweer, 22, of Beeston, Leeds, is understood to be one of the suicide bombers who struck last Thursday.
The cricket-loving sports science graduate is among three men from West Yorkshire and another, thought to be from Luton, who appear to be behind the attacks.
Hasib Mir Hussain, a 19-year-old from Leeds, is believed to be another of the bombers.
It is known that his driving licence and cash cards were found in the mangled wreckage of the number 30 bus, which blew up in Tavistock Square and caused 13 deaths.
He had told his parents he was going to London with friends on the day of the attacks and at 10.20pm last Thursday his mother reported him missing to the police – apparently fearing he may have been caught in the tragedy.
Hussain lived in the Leeds suburb of Holbeck with his parents.
Sources said there was “strong” forensic evidence linking Tanweer to the blast on the Underground train near Aldgate.
His semi-detached home in the Beeston area, where he had lived all his life, was sealed off by police yesterday as inquiries were carried out across West Yorkshire.
Friends have told the ITV News Channel that he had travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan within the last six months, prompting fears he may have attended an al-Qaida training camp.
Documents belonging to a third suspect, who was 30 and from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, were found in the debris of the Edgware Road blast.
All three men were believed to have been friends but not related.
Scotland Yard confirmed a relative of one of the suspects was arrested in West Yorkshire yesterday and was being brought to London to be quizzed by the anti-terrorist branch.
A fourth bomber is thought to have lived in the Luton area and the West Yorkshire men are understood to have used hire cars to travel to Luton last Thursday morning.
Police said two cars had been recovered from Luton railway station in connection with the gang.
Officers carried out 10 controlled explosions in the early hours after explosives were discovered in one of the vehicles.
The other car had been impounded and towed away to Leighton Buzzard last Thursday, but will today be examined further.
All four bombers boarded a Thameslink rail service to King’s Cross last Thursday, where they were captured on CCTV just before 8.30am.
They then split up, three of them detonating their bombs on separate trains simultaneously at 8.50am.
The bus bomb detonated 57 minutes later. Detectives are still unsure whether that bomb had been destined for a fourth Tube train.
One theory is that three bombers travelled west, east and south on the London Underground from King’s Cross and the fourth was supposed to go north but the Northern Line was closed that day.
A senior security source, who has viewed the CCTV footage, said: “They were chatting. You would think they were going on a hiking holiday.”
The images, which were only spotted by detectives at 8pm on Monday, provided a crucial breakthrough in the police investigation – which saw dramatic developments yesterday, beginning with a series of dawn raids in West Yorkshire.
Six houses in Leeds and Dewsbury were raided and officers have confirmed they recovered bomb-making equipment at one of the addresses.
Ordnance experts blasted open a door of a house in Hyde Park Road, Burley, so that a search could be conducted for explosives.
A semi-detached house in Colwyn Road, in the Beeston area of Leeds, and a terrace house in nearby Stratford Street, were also raided.
A three-storey red-bricked terrace house in Colenso Mount, Holbeck, Leeds - thought to be the home of Hussain – was swooped on, as were two properties in Lees Holm and Park Avenue, both in Dewsbury.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in the Hyde Park Road area of Leeds as the raids took place, with some forced to spend last night in a council sports centre.
Detectives and the security services fear there could still be a second suicide bomb team waiting to strike and that an al-Qaida mastermind could have orchestrated the attacks before fleeing the UK.
The bombers appear to be the security services’ worst nightmare, so-called “clean skins”, apparently ordinary young men who had not previously come to the attention of the authorities.
“How many clean skins have we got waiting in the wings?” a senior security source said.
“What we don’t know is whether someone came in under the al-Qaida methodology, whether they came in, did the preparation and left the country the day before the attacks.”
As police attempt to formally identify the bombers, further inquests into the deaths of their victims will be opened and adjourned today.
Police have so far confirmed that 52 people died in last Thursday’s blasts and said that 11 have been formally identified.
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