British police are hoping that the dramatic arrest in Birmingham yesterday of a suspected would-be suicide bomber will be the breakthrough in their hunt for three others still on the run.
The arrest came amid a flurry of other raids by armed officers in London, three more arrests, and the halting of a train and a Ryanair aircraft to France on a runway which both turned out to be false alarms.
The arrest of Yasin Hassan Omar (24), a Somali living in London, coincided with a number of fresh leads. Homes were raided in north and south London.
Police had been anxious for a breakthrough after releasing photos of the four suspects last Friday and identifying two this week. Two remain unidentified.
Meanwhile, unnamed sources told the US network ABC News that 16 bombs were found in a car believed to have been rented by suspected suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer, who blew himself up on a train in London on July 7th.
The car was discovered five days later at Luton station, where Tanweer and his fellow bombers had boarded a train to London.
Inside were home-made high explosives flat-packed like pancakes. And one image showed large nails bulging out of the side of a bottle-shaped bomb.
The first pictures of the bloody aftermath of the July 7th bombings were also broadcast by ABC News.
They showed the carnage inside the train near King's Cross on which bomber Germaine Lindsay killed himself and 26 others.
The sides, roof and floor of the train had been blown apart and wires dangled down across what remained of the twisted carriage.
The head of the anti-terrorist branch, deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke, last night produced a new photo of one of the suspects who fled Shepherd's Bush in west London last Thursday.
There were unconfirmed reports that Muktar Said-Ibrahim (27), who allegedly trying to set off a bomb on a bus in Hackney, east London, may have gone by coach to Amsterdam and on to Belgium.
The operation in Birmingham began at 4am yesterday. Fifty officers from the anti-terrorist branch, West Midlands police, and MI5 raided two homes. In Heybarnes Road in Small Heath, officers smashed their way into a semi-detached house divided into flats.
Taser guns were used to stun a man later identified as Omar, wanted in connection with the attempted bombing on a tube train at Warren Street and whose photo from a CCTV camera has been on the front page of newspapers.
It was reported he may have been wearing a rucksack which was thrown out of a window. Omar, whose flat in London was searched on Tuesday, was taken to Paddington Green police station. - (Guardian Service)