METROPOLITAN POLICE-GETTY IMAGES SURRENDER Police ordered Ibrahim Muktar Said and Ramzi Mohammed to strip in order to guard against attack before arrest

SPECIAL REPORT     Terror Next Door
	After a massive manhunt, Britain's suspected suicide bombers are nabbed. But that doesn't mean the threat of more attacks is over
	By J.F.O. McALLISTER / London

Posted Sunday, July 31, 2005; 14:24BST
They looked pathetic without backpacks filled with explosives. Naked except for their underwear, vomiting and spitting to clear out the tear gas police fired into their west London hideout, two forlorn men wanted for attempting to bomb London's transport system on July 21 surrendered to police after a three-hour siege. "Mohammed, Mohammed, come out, we won't hurt you!" the police kept shouting. But when no one came out, officers fixed a strip of plastic explosive and blew off the front door of the fourth-floor apartment where the men had taken refuge. The tear gas was next. Unlike the Madrid train bombers — who blew themselves up in April of last year rather than be captured — Ibrahim Muktar Said, suspected of trying to bomb a No. 26 bus, and Ramzi Mohammed, thought to have tried to bomb a train at Oval station, showed no inclination for suicide. "I've got rights!" one of them shouted to police, before finally giving himself up.

Just a few hours later in Rome, Italian police caught Hussain Osman, alleged to have tried to blow up a train at Shepherd's Bush, among the umbrella pines and oleander of the Tor Pignattara neighborhood on the city's southeastern rim. According to an Italian Interior Ministry official, British authorities provided their Italian counterparts with the number of a cell phone registered to Osman's brother-in-law, which they believed Osman was using as he tried to evade the massive British manhunt.

"In the course of two days, he went from London to Paris to Milan and finally Rome," the official says. Once there, he holed up in his brother's apartment, which police surrounded with 60 special agents. After they burst in, he quickly surrendered.

The fourth suspected bomber was already in custody. He had been grabbed at 4:30 a.m. last Wednesday on a quiet, leafy street 4 km outside Birmingham city center. Police swarmed down the slim garden path of a nondescript brick house and surrounded the back door, leading into a tiny bedsit apartment. "Hassan! Hassan!" they shouted. Neighbors saw blue and yellow flashes and heard explosions. Inside, antiterror officers found their bleary-eyed quarry, Yasin Hassan Omar, suspected of trying to bomb an underground train at Warren Street station, who scuffled with them and was immobilized with a 50,000-volt blast from a Taser gun.

And so, in just eight days, the biggest manhunt in the history of British policing nabbed the four known members of the gang suspected of trying to bomb the transport network on July 21. More than 6,000 police, half of them armed, put on an unprecedented show of force in London last week, watching every underground station and patrolling trains, buses and streets. "We're here to offer reassurance, madam," one polite bobby in a flak jacket told an inquisitive pedestrian. But even the best police work can't lift the cloud of fear and unease hanging over the city. No one had anticipated the attacks of July 7 or July 21, and the bombers and suspects were not on any terrorist-watch list. Are there other gangs ready to commit mass murder as they offer up their own lives to their dark vision of Islam? Though the most wanted men in Britain have been caught, the investigation still has a lot of unsettling loose ends.

British and U.S. officials have told Time that police have not yet found any forensic link between the July 7 and July 21 suspects: no phone calls, documents or other evidence tying the two groups together. Moreover, contrary to earlier speculation, the bombs used in the attacks came from different mixtures of home-made explosive, according to a British official. That means either that the same "chemist" made two different batches, or that more than one chemist was at work, and may still be on the loose.

Continued ...

London Terror [Aug. 1, 2005] Four more bomb attempts on London transport rattle the already anxious capital, while the search for those responsible takes on global dimensions Becoming A Bomber [Aug. 1, 2005] Investigators in Pakistan explore possible radicalizing influences Hate Around The Coner [July 25, 2005] Investigators blame the attacks on four homegrown suicide bombers — and look for global links to al-Qaeda In Both Sorrow and Anger [July 25, 2005] British Muslims start to talk about the London bombs — and the radicalism that produced them The Hardest Count [July 25, 2005] How do you indentify the victims of a suicide bomber? 7 Days Later [July 14, 2005] Scenes from Britain after the suicide attacks TIMEeurope.com Series Of Explosions In London [July 7, 2005] Dozens die as terrorists hit Britain's capital in the crowded rush hour TIME.com Back to Work [July 8, 2005] TIME's staffers give first-person accounts of their morning journey as Londoners return to their commute the day after a deadly attack Photoessay Rush Hour Terror [July 18, 2005] After a strike in the heart of London, suspicion again falls on Islamic radicals. Inside the hunt for the bombers 3 Lessons from London [July 18, 2005] As investigators unravel the plot, here's what the attacks reveal about how al-Qaeda operates today — and why the bombings may be a sign of things to come Photoessay A New Blitz [July 7, 2005] Four explosions in London rip apart a bus and shut down the entire transport system Photoessay Eyewitness [July 8, 2005] Personal Cameras and cellphones record the terror of the day Photoessay London Carnage [July 8, 2005] Dozens killed by rush-hour terror strikes Photoessay London Mourning [July 8, 2005] Shock and sadness follows a wave of terror Search all issues of TIME Magazine Indicates premium content