Counterterrorism Blog

British law enforcement made the first arrests for the July 7, 2005 transit bombings, which killed 52 commuters in addition to the four bombers. From the BBC website: "Two men, aged 23 and 30, were arrested shortly before 1300 GMT at Manchester Airport when they were due to catch a flight to Pakistan. A third man, aged 26, was arrested at a house in Leeds shortly after 1600 GMT. The men were held on suspicion of the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism... Searches are being carried out at five houses in the Beeston area of Leeds, West Yorkshire Police said. (Note: Three of the 7/7 bombers lived in Beeston at one point or another). A flat and a separate business premises are also being searched in east London... A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'Detectives have continued to pursue many lines of inquiry both here in the UK and overseas... We need to know who else, apart from the bombers, knew what they were planning. Did anyone encourage them? Did anyone help them with money, or accommodation?'" Sky News has a timeline of those attacks. "Jawa Report" has additional information and background on these arrests.

The British Intelligence and Security Committee published its special report (Acrobat file) analyzing the 7/7 attacks on May 11, 2006.

We extensively covered the 7/7/05 London bombings and the attempted bombings on July 21, 2005. I posted on July 7 with links to pictures from the bombing sites and an on-site report from a UK reporter. You can read our coverage of the immediate aftermath of both events in posts stored in our July 2005 archives and August 2005 archives (punctuation errors are the result of the transfer of the posts from our original site in use at that time).

Just hours after the 7/7 bombing, Walid Phares dissected internet statements from al Qaeda elements, which celebrated the "Ghazwat London." In early September 2005, as reported here by Evan Kohlmann, Al Qaeda released a videotape in which London 7/7 suicide bomber Mohammed Sadiq Khan explained his reasons for the attacks, and Al Qaeda #2 Ayman al-Zawahri described the 7/7 attacks as the "9/11" for the UK and promised more such operations in "enemy territory" in the near future.

BBC's Map of Search Area

Other Contributing Experts have written on issues related to the two July 2005 events.

Bill West posted eight days after the 7/7 bombings about the fact that at least two of the suspects had ties to and likely spent time in the United States.

Steven Emerson listened to a "fatwa" against "terrorism or extremism" issued by American "mainstream" Muslim leaders after the July 2005 events and wrote on July 28, 2005 that the fatwa was "bogus" because, "Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism. It does not renounce nor even acknowledge the existence of an Islamic jihadist culture that has permeated mosques and young Muslims around the world. It does not renounce Jihad let alone admit that it has been used to justify Islamic terrorist acts. It does not condemn by name any Islamic group or leader. In short, it is a fake fatwa designed merely to deceive the American public into believing that these groups are moderate." That remains the single most popular post ever on The Counterterrorism Blog.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross wrote on the support for the London bombers by the father of Mohammed Atta, one of the pilots of the planes used in the 9-11 attacks.

Dennis Lormel wrote on the day of the failed 7/21 attacks on the importance of "comprehensive financial investigative strategies... to identify and link members of the terrorist cell or cells together, as well as identify any support structures."

In May 2006, upon the release of the British Intelligence and Security Committee's report on the 7/7 attacks, Zeyno Baran called for the banishment of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the UK.

This past November, Douglas Farah analyzed "the stunning public statement by Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller that Britain's domestic intelligence agency MI5 is tracking some 200 Islamist cells with some 1,600 members who "actively engaged in plotting or facilitating terrorist acts here and overseas."

Michael Cutler has written often, most recently on February 26, on the potential for British homegrown terrorists, like the 7/7/05 bombers, to easily enter the U.S. through the Visa Waiver Program.