British Jihad Update from AP:
LONDON – British officials Friday identified 19 of the suspects accused of planning to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft in the biggest terrorist plot to be uncovered since 9/11. In Pakistan, officials reported signs of an al-Qaida connection and said they had detained a “key person” in the case….
British police have arrested 24 people suspected of involvement in the plot. At least one was reportedly a woman with a small child; two others were converts to Islam. One of the suspects reportedly worked at Heathrow Airport.
The identities of 19 were disclosed by the Bank of England as it announced it had frozen their accounts. They ranged in age from 17 to 35 and had Muslim names, many of them common in Pakistan. Pakistani officials said they were British-born.
Pakistani officials said they had arrested five Pakistanis and two Britons in the case, including British national Rashid Rauf, arrested about a week ago and described as a “key person” with ties to al-Qaida.
“We arrested him from the (Afghanistan-Pakistan) border area and on his disclosure we shared the information with British authorities, which led to further arrests in Britain,” Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao The Associated Press. The five Pakistanis were described as suspected “facilitators” of the plot.
Later Friday, Pakistani intelligence officials said more people had been arrested in eastern Pakistan.
British and U.S. investigators, describing a plot on the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said the planners sought to use common electronic devices to detonate liquid explosives to bring down as many as 10 planes.