British Terror Plot

Britain foils 'mass murder' plot to blow up planes

(AFP)
Updated: 2006-08-11 16:47

Chertoff likened the plot to a foiled plan in 1995 to detonate bombs on 11 airliners flying to the United States over the Pacific.

The Times also reported that a so-called "martyrdom video", seemingly recorded by someone planning on becoming a suicide bomber, was found at one of the homes raided by police, citing unnamed government sources.

British police declined to comment on what had been found in the suspects' homes.

US news broadcaster ABC News reported that five people suspected of being involved in the plot were still at large and being hunted by police, a report London's Metropolitan Police declined to confirm.

British media outlets cited police sources as saying they had apprehended all known suspects.

"Whilst the police are confident that the main players have been accounted for, neither they nor the government are in any way complacent," said British Home Secretary John Reid.

Deputy Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the London police's anti-terror branch, said police took "urgent action" overnight because the operation had reached a "critical point", but did not elaborate.

Chertoff said the plot involved attackers carrying components of the bombs in the form of liquid explosives and detonating devices disguised as drinks, electronic devices or other common objects. The components were to be assembled on the plane.

British police declined to confirm the use of liquid explosives.

Chertoff said the arrests had "significantly disrupted this major threat," adding that the plot had been in the "final stages" of planning.

Although there was no indication of plotting inside the United States, Washington would not drop its guard, he said.

In Green Bay, Wisconsin, US President George W. Bush said the alleged plot showed the United States remained "at war with Islamic fascists" nearly five years after the September 11, 2001 suicide plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Blair's Downing Street office said that he wouldn't have gone on holiday had he known the police would have had to move so quickly to disrupt the plot, The Guardian reported.

Airport authorities around the world tightened security measures on passengers and luggage travelling to and from Britain and the United States, causing travel delays on five continents.

Britain raised its security alert to "critical" -- the highest of five levels -- from "severe," where it had been since security was relaxed in the weeks after the London transport attacks of July 2005 which killed 56 people.

The United States raised the threat level for flights from Britain to the highest state: "severe, or red." For all other commercial air traffic, it was raised to "high, or orange."

British Airways cancelled short-haul flights Thursday between Heathrow and other British and European cities, as well as the Libyan capital Tripoli.

Passengers on all planes leaving British airports, including domestic and transit flights, were banned from taking any hand luggage on board other than essential items such as money, tickets, keys, some medicines and spectacles.

Apart from baby milk, which had to be tasted before boarding, all liquids were taken from them.

With the large number of canceled flights nearby hotels quickly filled up with stranded passengers, with one British Airways telling the Guardian some were forced travel as far away as the coastal town of Brighton, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) from London, to find a room.

Pakistani authorities told AFP they had made several arrests which helped British police uncover the plot, linking the operation to the country where bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, of London's Metropolitan Police said the plot concerned "people who might masquerade within a community behind certain faiths," in an apparent allusion to Britain's Muslim community.

The Bank of England, Britain's central bank, announced on Friday that it had frozen the bank accounts of 19 of the arrested men on behalf of the government, and publicly released their names.

Last year, four suicide bombers -- all Muslims who had grown up in Britain -- killed 52 commuters in coordinated attacks on three London Underground trains and a bus, the worst terror attack on British soil.