Posted: 7/26/2005 3:16:45 AM EDT
Bombers on benefits www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004600000-2005340267,00.htmlBy MIKE SULLIVAN TWO fugitive London bombers have been living in Britain on state benefits, it emerged last night. Somalian Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, received £23,000 in housing benefit over six years while living at a flat in Southgate, North London, which was raided yesterday.
Flatmate Muktar Said-Ibrahim tried to bomb a bus.
Rent-free bomb HQ
By MIKE SULLIVAN, CLODAGH HARTLEY and ANTHONY FRANCE
TERROR suspects were spotted lugging mysterious boxes into the one-bedroom flat in which two bombers lived rent-free.
Last night neighbour Sammy Jones, 33, recalled: “I asked them what they were carrying upstairs. They replied, ‘wallpaper stripper’.
“Thinking back, it may well have been something more sinister.”
Armed cops stormed the ninth-storey flat — 58 Curtis House in Southgate, North London — early yesterday. Residents on three floors of the 13-storey block were evacuated.
Last night more than 25 officers also sealed off two neighbouring four-storey blocks after searching lock-ups underneath them.
Police named Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, as the man who tried to bomb Warren Street Tube station. They said flatmate Muktar Said-Ibrahim, 27, tried to blow up a double-decker bus.
Both are still on the run, believed to be holed up in a London safe house with two unidentified gang members. Police said they were in a “race against time” to find them before they tried to strike again.
They issued a passport-style photograph of Said-Ibrahim, also known as Muktar Mohammed-Said, along with a CCTV image taken of another gang member.
Residents of the 77 other flats in the block were given leaflets with a message from Met chief Sir Ian Blair asking them to remain calm.
Forensic experts took away Omar’s fridge — thought to have been used to store homemade explosives — and at least eight large boxes of belongings. They also removed rubbish to sift through for evidence.
Two men, believed to be Somalis, were arrested at another flat in the block, taking the number held over Thursday’s bomb bids to five.
The gang hoped to emulate the 7/7 attacks which killed 56 commuters — but their four bombs failed to detonate. A fifth device was later found in a park near Wormwood Scrubs Prison, West London, sparking fears a fifth bomber was also on the loose.
One bomber wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with the words New York — thought to be a mocking reference to the 9/11 atrocities. A CCTV image of him released yesterday showed him standing on a Northern Line train on the Charing Cross branch.
When his device failed he fled at the next stop, Oval, at around 12.35pm. He ran off towards Brixton chased by members of the public.
Said-Ibrahim got a Northern Line train on the separate Bank branch before boarding a No26 bus. His bomb failed and he got off at Hackney Road at around 1.05pm.
Omar took a northbound Victoria Line train and tried to set off his bomb near Warren Street station.
The fourth bomber, yet to be identified, tried to explode his device near Shepherd’s Bush station.
He is believed to have clambered through a rear window, run down the track, climbed into back gardens, and fled through the house of one astonished couple.
He walked past the BBC TV centre in Wood Lane, then ran under the A40. Police said at least two bombs contained nails and shrapnel to maximise injuries.
All the devices had been put in clear plastic food containers manufactured in India and sold in 100 shops across the UK. Police want to hear from shopkeepers who sold one person five or more of the 6¼-litre tubs with white plastic lids. Each has a “Delta 6250 with Lid” label, and another reading: “Family Containers, Delta, Superior Quality.”
Detectives are also probing links between the 7/7 suicide gang and Thursday’s bombers. They have already found that members attended the same white water rafting course in Bala, north Wales, on June 4.
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