Major Hunt on for London Bombers

搜捕伦敦爆炸案嫌疑犯

As police barked out orders to passersby, teams of armed officers conducted raids across London in the search for three men suspected of planting bombs that failed to explode on subway trains and a bus on July 21.

Police say there have been a number of arrests in the operations in London's Kensington and Noting Hill neighborhoods, and at the Liverpool Street train station in the city's financial district.

London media say one or more of the three would-be bombers could be among those arrested, but there was no official police confirmation of those reports.

In an earlier interview on British television, London police commissioner Ian Blair said he was sure police would capture the suspects.

Ian Blair: I'm confident that we will arrest the people responsible for the attempted bombings on the Tube and the bus last week. I'm confident about that.  How soon it will be, I don't know.  But I'm quite sure that the net is closing. I do think the investigation has proceeded at extraordinary speed and some extraordinary achievements have been made in it.

Police already have one of the four suspects in custody.  The man, 24-year-old Yasin Hassan Omar, was captured in Birmingham on Wednesday.  He is being questioned at a central London police station.

In another development, the British government says it wants consular access to a British national detained in Zambia who reportedly has connections to the July 7 London bombings that killed 56 people.

U.S. media outlets say the man, 31 years old Haroon Rashid Aswat, had placed some 20 phone calls to some of the four British Muslim men who authorities say set off the July 7 bombs in a series of suicide attacks.

Haroon Rashid Aswat is also wanted by U.S. authorities in connection with alleged efforts to establish a terrorist camp in the northwestern state of Oregon.

British authorities have not confirmed or denied the U.S. news reports, which are described as being based on information provided by U.S. officials familiar with the investigation.

Michael George, VOA news, London.

注释：

bark out 大声喊出

confirmation [7kCnfE5meiFEn] n. 证实，确认

commissioner [kE5miFEnE] n. 委员，专员

in custody 被拘留

consular [5kCnsjulE] adj. 领事的

Zambia [5zAmbiE] n. 赞比亚