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| Two more arrested in failed UK terror plot | | |
LONDON, JUL 2 The suspected ringleader of a plot to unleash a blitz of car bombs on Britain is an Iranian doctor who has been arrested along with his wife, a report here said even as detectives investigating the failed terror attacks at Glasgow airport and London arrested two more suspects today, taking the total to seven.
Police said the two men, aged 25 and 28, were arrested today after an "intensive police operation" in Paisley area in Scotland.
Yesterday, Iranain Neurologist Dr Mohammed Asha (26) and his wife (27) were held as they drove on the M6 motorway in Cheshire with their two-year-old son, leading tabloid The Sun reported today.
Their home, 20 km away in a cul-de-sac in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs, was searched by forensic officers yesterday.
Asha has just started a job at the North Staffordshire Hospital in nearby Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent. It is feared he may also be the head of an al-Qaeda cell. Anti-terror cops also carried out a search of his locker at the hospital.
"It is shocking that a doctor, of all people, could be arrested over an attempt to kill and maim hundreds of people," a security source told the tabloid.
Neighbours of the doctor said he and his wife had hardly any visitors during their year in the house. But in the past two weeks two Asian men with long beards had turned up in a car on several occasions and stayed the night.
"Dr Asha dressed in Muslim style, with a flat woolen hat, and he sports a beard. His wife always wore a burka. He was paying 500 pounds a month in rent and was in many ways the ideal tenant," said Simon, son of the landlady, Wendy Weaver.
"There were lots of medical books lying around. My mum says the doctor had contacted her and said he intended leaving in July."
Asha and his wife, who is also thought to be from the Middle East, were driven to London's Paddington Green police station along with a suspect arrested in Liverpool and one of the men arrested in Glasgow airport.
Sources said one of two men held while trying to smash a blazing vehicle into a Glasgow Airport terminal on Saturday afternoon is also a doctor, from Iraq.
Security bosses believe the two men in Glasgow were also responsible for the failed attempt to devastate London's West End early on Friday.
Two Mercedes cars were used in Friday's failed bid to blast the packed Tiger Tiger club in London. On Saturday two men drove a blazing Jeep Cherokee filled with petrol and gas canisters into a terminal building at Glasgow Airport. One of them suffered 90 per cent burns after setting himself on fire.
A controlled explosion took place at Glasgow's Royal Alexandria Hospital where he was being treated yesterday. A suspect device had been reportedly found in a white BMW in the hospital's car park.
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