Italian police arrest bomb attack suspect

A SOMALI-born Briton believed to be one of the four suspects in the July 21 bombing attempts in London was arrested in Rome yesterday.

Hussain Osman, a naturalised British citizen, was picked up by Italian police in an operation that was still ongoing last night, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said.

Osman is accused of planning an attack at Shepherd's Bush underground station in west London. He was seen on closed-circuit TV carrying a backpack.

"The arrest made a short while ago in Rome of the Somali Hussain Osman, a naturalised British citizen, is really deserving of praise," Mr Pisanu said.

The Italian news agency ANSA later reported that a brother of the suspect was also arrested in Rome.

ANSA said the brother owns an apartment on the outskirts of the city where Osman was arrested. The report did not identify the brother by name.

Pisanu said the operation was "being carried out in the context of international cooperation," but gave no further details.

A police official said Osman was brought in alone and covered by a blanket to Rome's police headquarters shortly after his arrest. Two of Rome's top anti-terrorism prosecutors were seen arriving there yesterday.

RAI state television said Hussain was traced to what it described as his brother-in-law's apartment near Rome's main train station because Osman had been using the relative's cell phone in London.

It said Scotland Yard had told Italian police a cell phone call intercepted at the location of the July 21 bombing had been in the name of someone who lived in Rome.

Two days ago, the mobile phone moved from London to Paris, then Milan, then to the relative's apartment in Rome, the report added.

Italian police entered the apartment yesterday, where they found Osman with the mobile phone, RAI said.

The Italian news agency ANSA, citing unidentified sources, gave a different version. It said that by monitoring cell phone conversations between the two men, police were able to follow the suspect's movements from England to Milan, Bologna and Rome.