A fifth person was arrested yesterday after a fuel-filled jeep
was rammed into Scotland's busiest airport, a terrorist attack that
police said was linked to two failed car bombings in London.
Three of the arrests were in northern England and followed the
detention of two men, who witnesses described as Asians. They were
seized on Saturday immediately after they slammed a Jeep Cherokee
into Glasgow airport, about 640 km north of London, and set it
ablaze.
The attack, which injured five people and damaged the airport
entrance, came just 36 hours after two car bombs loaded with fuel,
gas canisters and nails were found on the busy streets of central
London primed to detonate.
After the series of threats, Britain raised its national
security level to "critical", meaning the risk of another attack
was imminent, and increased security at airports.
Witnesses in Glasgow said the two men raced their green jeep into
the airport terminal's glass doors before dousing it in petrol and
torching it.
Following the threats, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
convened a meeting of his top security chiefs to discuss ways to
handle the first big test of his leadership.
"Irrespective of Iraq, irrespective of Afghanistan, irrespective
of what is happening in different parts of the world, we have an
international organization trying to inflict the maximum damage on
civilian life in pursuit of a terrorist cause that is totally
unacceptable to most people," he told BBC television.
"Terrorism can never be justified as an act of faith. It is an
act of evil in all circumstances," he said.
British Muslim groups have condemned the incidents and urged
their fellow brethren to cooperate with the authorities.
"We are utterly appalled by this sinister plot and commend the
professionalism of the security services in aborting it," the
British Muslim Initiative said in a statement.
Though police linked the attack to the thwarted London car
bombings, they did not say how. The failed London plot bears the
hallmarks of a previous Al-Qaida plan to attack the British capital
with fuel-filled cars, and another militant plan to bomb a major
nightclub, they said.
"There are clearly similarities and we can confirm that this is
being treated as a terrorist incident," the Glasgow area's top
police officer Willie Rae said.
The airport attack and the failed bombings come almost two years
after the July 7, 2005, attacks on London's transport system, in
which four British Muslims blew themselves up killing 52
commuters.
"We are dealing with a long-term threat. It's not going to go
away in the next few weeks or months," Brown, himself a Scot, said
in a somber appraisal of the terrorist threat facing Britain.
In a town a short drive from the airport in Glasgow, Scotland's
biggest city, police in white body suits searched houses and set up
forensic tents behind one building.
Neighbors said two Asian men had moved into one of the houses a
month ago but had kept very much to themselves.
"I don't remember seeing them at all," said Mae Gordon, 67.
"They were the only people around here you would never see."
Police said the three arrests in northern England were related
both to the Glasgow and the London attacks, but did not provide
further details. Two of the men were arrested overnight on a major
highway and the third later yesterday. One of the two men detained
at Glasgow airport was badly burnt and listed in critical condition
in a hospital.
Britain has seen an increase in terrorism-related attacks since
the September 11 strikes on the United States and since it joined
US forces in invading Iraq in 2003. Some analysts said the failed
car bombings in London and the attack on Glasgow airport might be
designed to exert pressure on Britain to withdraw its troops from
Iraq and Afghanistan.
(China Daily via agencies July 2, 2007)
