Fri Aug 11, 2006 02:58 PM ET
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LONDON (Reuters) - Officials named 19 people on Friday suspected of an Islamist plot to blow up trans-atlantic airliners and ordered their assets frozen, a day after police said they had foiled "murder on an unimaginable scale".
U.S. officials said suspected suicide bombers were just days from simultaneous attacks on up to 10 aircraft flying from Britain to the United States, raising the spectre of strikes to rival the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The arrest of two dozen suspects prompted strict security measures that brought chaos to the country's airports at the height of the holiday season, with hundreds of flights cancelled. Measures were still in place on Friday, causing long queues.
"I think we are both going to kiss the ground when we touch it in Los Angeles," said Mandy Macdonald, a U.S. resident waiting to catch a plane from London's Heathrow airport.
Police said the plan was to blow up planes with chemical bombs smuggled on board disguised as drinks. The U.S. Homeland Security Department said the 24 people arrested in raids between Wednesday night and Thursday were British Muslims.
The Bank of England, acting on instructions from the government, published the names and addresses of 19 suspects, saying it would be illegal to release their funds.
Those arrested are aged from 17 to 35 and live in east London, the town of High Wycombe, and Birmingham.
Pakistan said it had played an important role in thwarting the suspected plot. A senior government official said it had arrested two Britons of Pakistani descent last week, calling them "key catches", along with five others.
AL QAEDA
The suspected plot came to light 13 months after four British Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured about 700 on London's transport network. At least two of the militants had visited Pakistan months before the attack.
U.S. Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend said the plot had "all the hallmarks" of links to al Qaeda. "We just need a little more time to put together those links," she told CBS News. British police have played down direct involvement by the global militant group.
Last month al Qaeda, several of whose leaders are thought to be hiding on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, urged Muslims to fight those backing Israel's strikes on Lebanon and warned of attacks unless U.S. and British forces left Iraq and Afghanistan.
Home Secretary John Reid said police were confident all the main figures had been caught, but that the country's security threat level would be kept at its highest level, "critical", for the time being.
U.S. TV network ABC quoted unidentified U.S. officials on Thursday as saying five suspects were still on the loose. But a police spokeswoman said on Friday they had arrested everybody they wanted to arrest.
"Clearly there might be other people out there who are part of it. We might turn things up that suggest there are other people out there," she said.
FLIGHTS RESUME
British airport operator BAA said on Friday a ban on short-haul flights to Heathrow had been lifted, while British Airways said it expected about 70 percent of its short-haul flights to operate on Friday.
In Britain, all hand luggage was banned on flights. On both sides of the Atlantic, authorities banned liquids and gels from bags being carried on to aircraft, and travellers with babies were forced to taste their baby food before boarding.
"It's probably safer to fly now than it was sort of two days ago so that makes it a little bit better, definitely," said passenger Toni Robinson, waiting to fly from Heathrow airport.
Some of the country's 1.7 million Muslims said they felt under siege and doubted whether there was a plot, given past blunders by anti-terrorism police due to faulty intelligence.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it was another case of a high-profile operation whipping the general public into this frenzy with very scant evidence," said Anjem Choudary, a former leader of the radical Al Muhajiroun group which praised the September 11 attacks.
(Additional reporting by Julia Glover, Peter Graff, Peter Griffiths, Michael Holden and Michael Smith in London, Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad)
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