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Four Britons Tied To London Blasts
A police forensics officer leaves a house in Leeds in northern England after raids in connection with the London bombings. British police searched five homes in Leeds on Tuesday in the hunt for suspected al Qaeda bombers who killed at least 52 people in London train and bus attacks on July 7.
(Ian Hodgson -- Reuters)
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A government memo published in the Sunday Times last weekend warned that a loose group of "extremist recruiters" sympathetic to the al Qaeda network was targeting susceptible young Muslims, especially those with technical and professional qualifications in engineering and computers. Most did not have police records, it said.
On Tuesday, Iqbal Sacranie, leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, told the BBC he had received the latest news from the police with "anguish, shock and horror."
"It appears our youth have been involved in last week's horrific bombings against innocent people," he said, reiterating the Muslim community's commitment to tracking down the killers. "Nothing in Islam can ever justify the evil actions of the bombers," he said.
Andy Hayman, assistant police commissioner, emphasized to reporters that the Muslim community should not be blamed for the bomb attacks. "No one should be in any doubt the work last Thursday is that of extremists and criminals," he said. "That being the case, no one should smear or stigmatize any community with these acts."
Officials formally identified 10 more victims of the bombings, bringing to 11 the total of confirmed dead. They said the work had been hampered by hot and difficult conditions at the Russell Square bomb site and by the need to preserve evidence in what Commissioner Ian Blair of Scotland Yard called "the biggest crime scene in British history."
The State Department on Tuesday identified an American who was earlier declared missing and presumed dead in the bombings as Michael Matsushita, of Bronx, N.Y.
Also Tuesday, local U.S. Air Force commanders came under sharp criticism for ordering American military personnel at two air bases in southeast England to stay away from London because of the security threat. The Daily Mail said the travel ban had handed "a symbolic victory to terrorists," and British Defense Secretary John Reid promised to look into the measure.
By noon, the ban had been lifted under direct orders from the commander of U.S. forces in Europe, Marine Gen. James L. Jones. "It was a little overblown, but at the same time there is a sensitivity to the public communications issue," said David Johnson, charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy.
Correspondent Craig Whitlock in Leeds contributed to this report.
