BRITISH anti terrorist officers arrested at least four men yesterday in connection with the IRA Docklands bombing after raiding more than 30 homes across England.
Commander John Grieve, the head of Scotland Yard's anti terrorist squad, refused to say exactly how many people had been arrested. But he said some items had also been seized.
Scotland Yard sources later confirmed that four of those arrested were from Maidstone, Kent. Anti terrorist officers also carried out between 30 to 40 raids at addresses in London Essex and the West Midlands.
A Birmingham police spokesman admitted that no one had been arrested in raids on two addresses in the West Midlands. "For operational reasons we are not discussing the matter further," he added.
Mr Grieve described the early morning raids as a "proactive intelligence driven operation" based on information received from the security services, special branch and the public.
He also revealed that an anonymous organisation had donated a £1 million stg reward, the largest lever offered in a British criminal investigation, for information leading to the conviction of the IRA Docklands bombers.
"It has been put up by members of the community. I cannot for obvious reasons be more specific. We rely on community partnerships to help us in the fight against criminality and terrorism.
"We will use every weapon we are given by our communities to bring terrorists to justice. We know that some criminals are motivated by money and we can all use that to get the information we need," he said.
Two men were killed in the explosion and more than 100 people were injured.
Mr Grieve announced that the police had now tracked the movements last week of the blue lorry which carried the bomb. Based on information from the public, it has been established that the lorry travelled from Stranraer in Scotland to Barking in the East End of London. He said the bomb had been primed shortly before the lorry was driven to the South, Quay train station in Docklands at about 4 p.m. last Friday.