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Britain looks to extend war on terror

First funeral service for victim of London bombings held

(CNN) -- As the first funeral for a victim of the London bombings was held Sunday, British politicians were looking to expand the nation's battle against terrorism both at home and abroad.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke is expected to discuss additional antiterrorist legislation with opposition leaders in the next few days.

The move will come more than a week after the bombings on three London subway trains and a bus during morning rush hour July 7 that killed 55 people and wounded more than 700. (Victims identified)

Possible measures to be debated include a law that would make it illegal to indirectly incite terrorism, a proposal seen as a way to rein in religious leaders who praise suicide bombers.

Defense Secretary John Reid said Sunday that even though the four named suspects were residents of Britain, the acts they're accused of committing are part of "an international battle of enormous proportions."

"It is a relatively small number of people who want to impose their will by the use of terror on the rest of civilization," Reid told CNN's "Late Edition."

Reid compared the fight against terrorism in Britain to the struggle against insurgents in Iraq and terrorists elsewhere.

"We have no option but to take these people on and to do it in unity with all civilized people throughout the world," he said.

In a speech Saturday in central London, Prime Minister Tony Blair said authorities were facing an "evil ideology" in their struggle against Islamic terrorism.

"The greatest danger is that we fail to face up to the nature of the threat," he said. "It is a battle of ideas, of hearts and of minds, both within Islam and outside it." (Full story)

Sunday's funeral at a London synagogue was held for Susan Levy -- the first for any of the victims of the attacks.

Levy, 53, died of wounds received in the blast on the train between King's Cross and Russell Square stations that killed at least 26 people.

A married mother with two adult sons, Levy was on her way to work from her home in Cuffley, Hertfordshire, north of London.

Meanwhile, relatives of the man Scotland Yard believes bombed the train Levy was on told a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, they were "devastated" by reports suggesting that their grandson was involved.

"I don't know what to think," said Stella Coleman-McLeod, the step-grandmother of 19-year-old Germaine Lindsay. If media reports are accurate, she said, "I'm devastated."

Lindsay's grandfather, Austin McLeod, told a reporter that it's hard for him to believe his grandson was capable of such an act, especially since the British-Jamaican, who had converted to Islam, was a family man.

"To have a young baby and have his wife pregnant, and to go out and do that kind of terrible crime, to take other people's life, I don't believe he grew up in any environment to do something like that," he told WHDH-TV Saturday.

In Britain, Lindsay's half-sister, said she's not convinced he had anything to do with the bombings.

"I want proof to say that it was him. I want proof of something that has actually happened to say that it was him," said Dana Reid. "Because I don't think it is."

Ongoing investigation

Over the weekend, investigators continued their work in London and elsewhere.

Police said Sunday they made six arrests in Leeds, about 300 kilometers (200 miles) north of London, on suspicion of immigration offenses. But Scotland Yard said there was no immediate link between the arrests and the bombings.

West Yorkshire police withdrew an earlier report that the arrests had been made under British anti-terrorism laws.

"At this stage, these arrests are not being linked to the incidents in London," the agency said in a statement. "However, we are in close liaison with officers from the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch as part of this inquiry."

Several homes have been searched in Leeds, including those of two of the suspected bombers.

"We have now executed search warrants at a total of 10 addresses in West Yorkshire and a further address in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire," Scotland Yard said in a statement Saturday.

"Searches have now been completed at three of the addresses in West Yorkshire, but the remainder are still ongoing."

Police also were granted a warrant to hold until Tuesday a 29-year-old man arrested July 12 in West Yorkshire "on suspicion of the commission, instigation or preparation of acts of terrorism," the statement said.

The man is being questioned at a central London police station, according to Scotland Yard.

The investigation has taken in more than 800 witness statements and 3,500 calls to an antiterrorist hotline, the agency's statement said.

On Saturday, Scotland Yard officially released the identities of Lindsay and Mohammed Sadique Khan, although their names had already been confirmed by officials familiar with the investigation.

Khan, 30, is believed to be responsible for the attack on a train approaching Edgware Road station that killed seven people.

Scotland Yard previously named the other two suspected bombers: Hasib Hussain, 18, thought to be responsible for the bus bombing in Tavistock Square, and Shahzad Tanweer, 22, believed to be responsible for the bombing near Aldgate station.

Tanweer and Hussain lived in Leeds, and Khan resided in nearby Dewsbury. Lindsay lived in Aylesbury, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of London.

Police released the first picture of all four suspected London bombers together, captured on closed-circuit television, in a bid to find out more about their final movements.

The picture shows all four men at Luton station at 7:20 a.m., about 55 kilometers (35 miles) north of London, on the day of the bombings. Each carries a backpack, thought to contain the bombs.

A police statement said, "We know they traveled together from here [Luton] on a Thameslink train to King's Cross in central London" where they were spotted on video shortly before 8:30 a.m., 20 minutes before the subway blasts.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that Khan had been scrutinized last year by the MI5, Britain's domestic secret service, but had not been regarded as a threat to national security or put under surveillance.

That happened during an inquiry that focused on an alleged plot to explode a large truck bomb outside a target in London thought to be a crowded nightclub in Soho, the newspaper said.

London's Metropolitan Police and Britain's Home Office had no immediate comment on the report.

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