LONDON — Police SWAT teams Friday captured the final three fugitives wanted in connection with a bombing attempt on the London transit system, two in a dramatic raid on a public housing project here and the third in a seizure by Italian police who tracked him to a working-class suburb of Rome.
The arrests culminated a manhunt that spanned at least three countries, beginning after bombs failed to explode on three subway trains and a bus July 21. Those assaults came two weeks after similar attacks in London killed 52 people and the four bombers.
The arrests of the men, whose images police say were recorded by security cameras and were shown repeatedly during the search, left Londoners feeling considerably safer. But British police warned that much work remained. The investigation now shifts to identifying suspected planners, bomb makers and accomplices in Britain, Italy and elsewhere.
"There will be more very visible police activity," said Peter Clarke, who leads anti-terrorism operations for London's Metropolitan Police. It seemed clear that police had closed in on the fugitives based on evidence gathered in 13 previous arrests, particularly the capture of the first suspect in Birmingham, England, on Wednesday. Phone intercepts also played a role, investigators said.
During a raid Friday morning on a top-floor apartment of a public housing project in London's Notting Hill neighborhood, a special weapons and tactics team captured Muktar Said Ibrahim, who a fellow suspect told police was the leader of the four would-be bombers.
Said was arrested along with Ramzi Mohammed, a short, athletic-looking young man who police say was filmed as he fled commuters who tried to tackle him after the attempted bombing of a subway train at London's Oval Station.
Television footage showed officers in helmets, gas masks and body armor charging across a balcony and firing tear gas into the apartment. Shortly afterward, Said and Mohammed appeared shirtless on the balcony, their hands up, looking sullen and disoriented, as police trained guns on them. They were led away wearing hooded forensic suits used to preserve evidence.
In Rome, police captured the fourth alleged bomber, identified as Hussain Osman, 27, a Briton of Ethiopian descent who once lived in Italy, a senior Italian anti-terrorism official said. The official described the name as an alias the suspect used when he posed as a Somali refugee to gain legal residency in Britain.
