Sat Jul 23, 2005 1:02 PM BST
By Jeremy Lovell
LONDON (Reuters) - Police were questioning two men arrested in south London as they combed the city in one of the biggest manhunts in British history on Saturday for four men wanted for failed bomb attacks on London's transport system.
The apparently copy-cat attacks that caused traffic chaos but killed no one on Thursday came two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters in London.
The two men were held after raids late on Friday in the Stockwell area of south London close to the site of one of Thursday's failed bombs on three underground trains and a bus -- the same targets as the July 7 bombs.
The arrests took place hours after police chased and shot dead another man in front of shocked passengers in the packed Stockwell Underground train station. Less than 24-hours after the pictures were released police said they had received more than 400 calls from the public.
The killing of a suspect -- shot five times at close range in the train -- took the fight against terrorism to a new level of force.
It sparked a fierce debate over whether police were right to adopt an apparent shoot-to-kill policy.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission and anti-war campaigners condemned the shooting as the start of a dangerous new chapter, but police and London's mayor defended it.
"IHRC fears that innocent people may lose their lives due to the new 'shoot to kill' policy of the Metropolitan Police," chairman Massoud Shadjareh said in a statement.
DEFEND THE PUBLIC
Mayor Ken Livingstone said the duty of the police was to protect the public against people considered to be terrorist suspects, and police said they had followed the man they shot from a house under surveillance and who had run when challenged.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said it was investigating the killing, as it did all fatal police shootings.
Media said police were operating under secret new guidelines, codenamed Operation Kratos, allowing them to aim for the head if they believe there was a threat to the public.
Police were sent to a series of security alerts.
Police briefly closed Mile End underground station on Saturday in a security alert, but declined to comment on speculation it was over the mistaken sighting of one of the suspect bombers. They said no one had been arrested.
The July 7 attacks killed 52 people and injured 700 in the worst peacetime attacks in the city's history. But on Thursday the devices failed to go off properly and no one was killed.
Because of that, police have more clues, including the unexploded bombs, eye witness reports and CCTV footage.
But security experts and the former head of London's police warned that the attacks could continue.
"If you look at any normal terrorist campaign through history it usually does last a fair period of time," former Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens told BBC World.
CALL FOR CALM
Details of the manhunt dominated TV bulletins, while newspapers splashed the suspects' pictures beneath the words "The Four Most Wanted", "The Fugitives" and "Human Bombs".
Witnesses told of plain-clothes police pursuing a suspect on to a subway train carriage. He slipped as he ran and then was repeatedly shot at point-blank range as he lay on the floor.
London's police chief Ian Blair said on Friday his force faced "the greatest operational challenge" in its history.
Police refused to say if the men in custody or the man shot dead were among the four suspects pictured in the photographs.
But the best-selling Sun tabloid said the first man arrested on Friday was suspected of trying to blow up the bus in Thursday's attempted bombings. Police declined to comment.
The Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade, an al Qaeda-linked group, has claimed responsibility for Thursday's bombings and those of July 7 and has threatened to target Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands, which also have troops in Iraq.
However, the group's claims of responsibility for previous attacks in Europe have been discredited by security experts.
Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed for calm but rejected suggestions that Britain's invasion of Iraq alongside U.S. troops in 2003 was in any way linked to the attacks.
© Reuters 2005
Sunday July , 24 - 2005
By Mohamed Ismail - Special to The Gazette
The blasts that killed over 80 people in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh early yesterday drew condemnation from across the globe.
Many foreign ministers sent messages of solidarity with the Egyptian people at this critical time.
The battle against terrorism is everybody's battle, the ministers said in telephone conversations with Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit. The international community should firmly and decisively confront the phenomenon of terrorism, they said. Mr Abul Gheit said his counterparts strongly denounced the attacks and tackled the issue of combating terrorism within a legal framework.
"The need to intensify and unify international efforts to combat terrorism was highlighted," he said, noting that he discussed President Hosni Mubarak's call for holding a long-awaited anti-terror international conference under the umbrella of the United Nations.
Mr Abul Gheit revealed that he would hold a series of meetings in New York next week to discuss preparations for a comprehensive international treaty to eliminate terrorism.
US President George W. Bush led international condemnation of the series of bombings in the popular Egyptian resort.
He stressed during a telephone conversation with President Mubarak the US solidarity with Egypt in its battle against terrorism, Presidential Spokesman Suleiman Awwad told reporters.
His Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also denounced the attacks, saying: "At this difficult time of testing, the United States stands with our friend and ally Egypt. Together we will confront and defeat this scourge that knows no boundary and respects no creed."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned the "evil people" who killed scores of people in the bomb attacks.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed his "sorrow and anger" at the bombings, which were claimed by an Al Qaeda linked group.
Russia and Japan also condemned the bombings.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a telegram to President Mubarak: "International terrorism Ð committing crimes one after another in Russia, in Great Britain, in Egypt and in other countries Ð is trying to make the civilised world live in a state of fear and violence.
In Tokyo a foreign ministry official said the government was "gravely shocked" by the attacks
French President Jacques Chirac condemned the bombings and reiterated France's "absolute determination to fight this scourge," in a statement issued as he was flying back from Madagascar.
Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi denounced the "tragic" bombings and restated Italy's determination to combat international terrorism.
The African Union (AU) and European Commission voiced horror at the cowardly bombings.
"The chairperson of the African Union Commission firmly condemns the deadly attacks perpetrated... against the town of Sharm el-Sheikh, known by all to be a symbol of peace and dialogue," the pan-African body said in a statement.
"On behalf of the European Commission, I express my horror and outrage at the latest terrorist attacks," said commission head Jose Manuel Barroso.
Leaders of the Arab and Islamic countries also sent condolences and expressed their anger over the attacks.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud sent a message of condolences to President Mubarak.
"Lebanon, which has suffered for so long and still suffers from terrorist attacks, stands by Egypt in these difficult circumstances," the message read.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari called for international cooperation against the "cancer of terrorism".
Both Jordan and Syria swiftly condemned the carnage on the Red Sea coast which threatened to deal a heavy blow to the vital tourism industry of the Arab world's most populous nation.
Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah condemned the bombings which he said "contravene all human values".
Iran said it firmly condemned the bombings -->"but"<-- (There's that word again) called on the US to change tack in its war on terror.