LONDON — At least six of the suspects in the failed London and Glasgow car bombings were foreign doctors or medical personnel working for the National Health Service, but officials still have not determined whether a foreign terrorist group sent them to Britain or whether they may have been recruited here.
Ten people have been arrested or detained for questioning. The majority were known "in some form" to the intelligence community, and were tracked down through cellphones, a security expert close to the government said. Nonetheless, investigators have not determined who led the ring.
"These people were not 'clean skins,' " said Anthony Glees, director of Brunel University's Center for Intelligence and Security Studies in London. Yet, he said, "there is no sense of what the center of gravity of the plot was."
A British security official agreed, adding that some of the suspects had not been questioned.
"It is much too early for anyone to decide how they got together," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is underway.
Police officials and sources have confirmed the arrests of Iraqi, Jordanian and Indian nationals in connection with the car bombs discovered in London early Friday and the fiery automobile attack Saturday on the international airport in Glasgow, Scotland. Detainees also reportedly include medical students from Saudi Arabia and a doctor from Lebanon.
The suspects, apparently all in their mid- to late-20s, include:
* Bilal Abdullah, an Iraqi doctor who worked at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, Scotland. He has been identified as a passenger in the Jeep Cherokee that plowed into the main terminal of Glasgow Airport and burst into flames. He was detained at the airport at the time of the attack.
* Khalid Ahmed, reported to be the driver of the SUV, who was critically burned in the fire. He is believed to be a doctor who worked and roomed with Abdullah in Paisley and, according to news reports, is from Lebanon. He remains in police custody at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
* Mohammed Jameel Asha, a Palestinian Jordanian neurosurgeon, who was arrested along with his wife Saturday night on a highway in west-central England. He worked at the North Staffordshire Hospital in nearby Stoke on Trent.
* Mohammed Haneef, an Indian doctor who worked at Halton Hospital in Cheshire, southeast of Liverpool, in 2005. He was detained in Brisbane, Australia, as he was about to board a flight with a one-way ticket.
