Two bomb suspects from Africa

2005-07-26 15:38

London - The two men named by police as suspected London bombers are a naturalised British citizen of Eritrean origin and a Somali national legally resident in Britain, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

The pair had been legally resident in the country for more than 10 years, a home office spokesperson said.

Somali national Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, arrived in Britain as a dependent in 1992 aged 11 and was granted exceptional leave to remain in the kingdom, the ministry said.

He was granted indefinite leave to remain in May 2000.

Both suspects living in London for years

Muktar Said Ibrahim, also known as Muktar Mohammed Said, arrived in Britain from Eritrea as a 14-year-old dependent in 1992 and was also granted exceptional leave to remain.

Ibrahim, 27, applied for naturalisation as a British citizen in November 2003 and received his British passport in September 2004, the spokesperson said.

Omar is thought to have endeavoured to explode his rucksack-carried device on a London Underground subway train at the central Warren Street station on July 21.

Ibrahim was named as the attacker who tried to blow up a Number 26 bus as it drove through east London nearly a week ago.

- AFP