Police arrest two in connection with three failed car bombings
Monday, 2 July 2007
LONDON, July 1 (AFP): The police have arrested two people in northwest England in connection with three failed car bombings in London and Glasgow, police said Sunday.
The pair was arrested in Cheshire by anti-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police and West Midlands Police, police added.
The two are in addition to two men who were arrested by Scottish police after they rammed a jeep into the main terminal at Glasgow Airport earlier Saturday, setting the building on fire but causing no major injuries. A double car-bombing plot was foiled in London early Friday.
Meanwhile: Britain faces a "major escalation" in the threat from militants, in particular from "home-grown" extremists, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's new security adviser warned in an article Sunday.
"Make no mistake, this weekend's bomb attacks signal a major escalation in the war being waged on us by militants," former Scotland Yard chief Lord John Stevens wrote in the News of the World weekly tabloid.
After three car bomb plots were foiled in London and Glasgow, Scotland, Friday and Saturday, Brown's new adviser on international security issues said there had been a significant increase in Al-Qaeda influence in Britain.
"The terror of 7/7 (the July 7, 2005 suicide bomb attacks in London) was awful enough, but now Al-Qaeda has imported the tactics of Baghdad and Bali to our streets," he said.
"And it will get worse before it gets better."
He added: "Hard evidence is hard to come by, but there is growing suspicion Al-Qaeda operatives-possibly British-born-have returned from Iraq as well as the traditional terrorist training camps in Afghanistan to guide groups here."
The pair was arrested in Cheshire by anti-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police and West Midlands Police, police added.
The two are in addition to two men who were arrested by Scottish police after they rammed a jeep into the main terminal at Glasgow Airport earlier Saturday, setting the building on fire but causing no major injuries. A double car-bombing plot was foiled in London early Friday.
Meanwhile: Britain faces a "major escalation" in the threat from militants, in particular from "home-grown" extremists, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's new security adviser warned in an article Sunday.
"Make no mistake, this weekend's bomb attacks signal a major escalation in the war being waged on us by militants," former Scotland Yard chief Lord John Stevens wrote in the News of the World weekly tabloid.
After three car bomb plots were foiled in London and Glasgow, Scotland, Friday and Saturday, Brown's new adviser on international security issues said there had been a significant increase in Al-Qaeda influence in Britain.
"The terror of 7/7 (the July 7, 2005 suicide bomb attacks in London) was awful enough, but now Al-Qaeda has imported the tactics of Baghdad and Bali to our streets," he said.
"And it will get worse before it gets better."
He added: "Hard evidence is hard to come by, but there is growing suspicion Al-Qaeda operatives-possibly British-born-have returned from Iraq as well as the traditional terrorist training camps in Afghanistan to guide groups here."