Intelligence

Armed police raid house in hunt for gangs who aid suicide killers

Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online

Daniel McGrory and Russell Jenkins
Complex trail of terror from Europe revealed as anti-terror officers seize suspect in Manchester allegedly tied to an insurgent who was killed fighting coalition forces

POLICE are hunting for the British support network behind a Manchester-based suicide bomber who was killed in Iraq after an attack on coalition forces.

An armed raid on the bomber’s safe house yesterday was the first confirmation that militants from Britain have been recruited for suicide missions in Iraq.

Anti-terror police arrested a French-Algerian man who allegedly shared the terraced house in Moss Side with the suspected bomber, named as Idris Bazis, 41.

Bazis is believed to still have family in this country who were last night being questioned by police.

He is said to have arrived in Britain last summer and was travelling on a French passport.

Bazis is said to have taken part in a suicide operation in February, which was the worst month for bomb attacks in Iraq after the election of a new government. At least 60 coalition troops were among those killed.

Detectives would not reveal which suicide attack it was that Bazis allegedly took part in, though it is understood that he was killed just days after being smuggled into the Anbar Province of Iraq. They have asked the US and Iraqi authorities in Baghdad for any DNA sample that was recovered to provide a positive identification.

The early-morning raid by 30 police yesterday comes after a series of arrests across Europe in the past week which has revealed a burgeoning network recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda supporters have made violent boasts on extremist websites in recent weeks about operations carried out by their “European martyrs” but Western security chiefs are only now realising the scale of recruitment.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the wanted terror leader, recently appealed on his website for young radicals living in Europe to join the ranks of “lions” in his “martyrs brigade”.

Security officials told The Times that they cannot give an accurate figure on the number of British-based radicals who have gone to Iraq.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: “Since the beginning of the year, there have been a series of suicide bombings against coalition forces in Iraq.

“This operation involved two suspects, one who used to live at the address in Great Southern Street before he travelled to Iraq to take part in a suicide bomb attack, and the other who was still living at the address until his arrest.”

Assistant Chief Constable David Whatton said that inquiries are being carried out in Baghdad and across Britain to establish the circumstances and to positively identify the suspected bomber and the details surrounding his travelling to Iraq.

“Officers are searching the address looking for documents relating to his journey to Iraq and links to anyone else,” Mr Whatton said.

Neighbours told of being woken by officers breaking down doors to force their way inside the modest red-brick terrace.

Andrew Holmes, 43, said that the man arrested by police had been living in the street for about two years, adding that several other men occasionally used the address.

Police teams in blue plastic suits moved into the house and took away a computer and two dustbin bags full of documents. The property is believed to be owned by a housing association.

June 21, 2005 at 11:21 PM in Iraq | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home