Four Arrested in Probe of Botched Transit Attack

MADELEINE BRAND, host:

From NPR West, this is DAY TO DAY. Alex Chadwick is away. I'm Madeleine Brand.

Coming up, separating fact from fantasy: the case of a man who wrote extensively about molesting children. Investigators try to sort out what's true.

But first, in Britain, more arrests today in connection with last week's botched transit bombings. Police detained four men in the central city of Birmingham, one of whom may be one of the bombers. NPR's Rachel Martin joins us from London.

And, Rachel, tell us more about what happened today. Who was arrested?

RACHEL MARTIN reporting:

Hi, Madeleine. The arrests today are part of what's being hailed as the biggest manhunt in British history. Thousands of police officers and MI5 security agents are involved in daily operations. They've been going through footage from hundreds of closed-circuit television camera footage in London, analyzing forensic information from the bombs that failed to explode last week. They're following up on leads from members of the public as well. Also armed officers have been involved in raids searching for suspects. All this work seems to be paying off. And there were lots of developments today, early-morning raids on two houses in Birmingham, northwest of London, in which four people were arrested in two separate operations by police there. One of the suspects is one of the suspected bombers from last week's attacks.

BRAND: Well, tell us more about that suspect. Who is he?

MARTIN: Yasin Hassan Omar was one of the men arrested in one of the two raids on houses this morning in Birmingham. Witnesses there heard police shouting, `Hassan, Hassan!' He was reportedly wearing a dark backpack that was similar to the backpacks worn by the suspected bombers in last week's attacks. Police were apparently so concerned about that backpack that they threw it out the window. He apparently resisted arrest, and so police used a TASER gun on him to detain him. He was then taken to Paddington Green, which is a high-security police station in central London where terrorism suspects are usually questioned. Omar is suspected of being the man who attempted to set off a bomb at Warren Street Tube station last Thursday. We know that he is a Somali who came to Britain in the early 1990s as a refugee from East Africa. He's the man who police believe was living in that north London apartment that police raided Monday. They've been scouring that apartment ever since, looking for clues that could lead them to the other suspected bombers.

BRAND: And any other developments in this investigation?

MARTIN: Yes. In addition to Hassan Omar arrested in Birmingham, there were three other people arrested in another part of that city. They're being questioned in Birmingham. Police briefly detained a man at Luton Airport today, which is north of London. He was taken off a flight to France by armed officers, but then he was released relatively soon afterwards. Police also today obtained extension orders to continue questioning two of the four men who were arrested on Friday and over the weekend in London.

BRAND: And with all these raids, arrests and, as you say, this massive police presence, what has been the reaction of the communities where these raids are happening?

MARTIN: Well, police are very conscious of maintaining good community relations right now. In Birmingham today after the morning arrests, people and Muslim community leaders talked about how good relations have been and how important it is that they continue. Birmingham has a very large Muslim population, and police need cooperation from the community, not only to catch the bombing suspects but also for everyday policing issues. So police are very much conscious of the need to maintain those good relations, and they're working very hard to preserve them.

BRAND: NPR's Rachel Martin in London.

Thanks a lot, Rachel.

MARTIN: Thanks, Madeleine.

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