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07/11/2005:

"Blair tells MPs 'we will not rest' until bombers are caught"

Tony Blair, the prime minister, today told parliament there was "no intelligence specific enough" to have prevented the London bombings, but promised the government would not rest until the perpetrators were brought to justice.

The capital returned to work today amid unconfirmed reports that the possibility of further attacks has put Britain on its highest ever state of terrorist alert. Mr Blair said an investigation - "among the most vigorous and intensive this country has seen" - was under way to find those responsible.

Speaking outside King's Cross station, where one of the bombs exploded, Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police chief, said the attack was one of the biggest crimes in English history and said the investigation would take time.

The prime minister said it was "probable that the attack was carried out by Islamist extremist terrorists" but insisted anger should not be directed at Muslim communities in Britain. He told British Muslims: "We were proud of your contribution before Thursday, we are proud of it today.

"We are united in our determination that our country will not be defeated by such terror, but will defeat it and emerge from this horror with our values, our way of life, our tolerance and respect for others undiminished."

The death toll today rose to 52 but could increase further as it was revealed police liasion officers are now working with 74 families. The first two victims of the bomb attack were today named: Susan Levy of Cuffley, Hetfordshire, and Gladys Wundowa of Chadwell Heath, Essex.

Mr Blair said intelligence services and police had worked hard over the last few years to guard Britain against such an attack.

"By their very nature, people callous enough to kill completely innocent civilians in this way are hard to stop," the prime minister, who has resisted Tory calls for an inquiry, told MPs.

"But our services and police do a heroic job for our country day in day out and I can say that over the past years, as this particular type of new and awful terrorist threat has grown, they have done their utmost to keep this country and its people safe."

The US president, George Bush, speaking at the same time in West Virginia, vowed to "take the fight" to the terrorists behind the London bomb attacks.

"These kind of people who blow up subways and buses are not people you can negotiate with or reason with or appease. In the face of such adversaries there is only one course of action.

"We will continue to take this fight to the enemy and we will fight until this enemy is defeated."

Intelligence officials have privately conceded that they received little information in the crucial 48 hours following the bombings.

A meeting on Saturday between top British, US and European intelligence chiefs admitted that there had been few breaks, few leads and no suspects, today's New York Times reported.

Christophe Chaboud, a French anti-terrorist official present at the meeting, told today's Le Monde the apparent use of military explosives was "very worrying".

"We're more used to cells making homemade explosives with chemicals. How did they get them? Either by trafficking, for example, in the Balkans, or they had someone on the inside who enabled them to get them out of a military establishment," he said.
Full: guardian.co.uk