May 25, 2013 -- Updated 1044 GMT (1844 HKT)
British counter-terrorism police arrest a man who was a childhood friend
of Woolwich murder suspect Michael Adebolajo after he gave an interview
to the BBC, it says. FULL STORY
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TRIBUTES TO SOLDIER
UK police: 3 more suspects arrested in Woolwich soldier killing
May 25, 2013 -- Updated 2148 GMT (0548 HKT)
Friend: UK asked accused attacker to spy
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Three more arrests have been made in connection with the killing, police say
- Police arrest a 31-year-old man in London on terrorism-related offenses
- The man told the BBC that one of the Woolwich murder suspects was approached by MI5
- Scotland Yard says the arrest is not connected to the Woolwich murder investigation
The men were being held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Police did not detail how
they were allegedly tied to the killing nor did they release their
identities, saying only that the men -- ages 21, 24 and 28 -- were
arrested by detectives from the Counter Terrorism Command and taken to a
south London police station.
Police said a Taser was used on two of the men, who "did not require hospital treatment."
Police also were carrying out search warrants at four residential addresses associated with the three men, the statement said.
The brutal slaying
Wednesday of Rigby near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a
working-class neighborhood in southeast London, shocked people across
the United Kingdom.
One of the two suspects
arrested at the scene approached a man filming the scene in the Woolwich
neighborhood and suggested that Rigby had been targeted only "because
Muslims are dying daily" at the hands of British troops such as him.
"We must fight them as
they fight us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," he said in
the video aired by CNN affiliate ITN.
Britain's armed forces
have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. All its combat troops are due to
leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Another man, 29, who was
arrested Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to murder in connection
with the Woolwich investigation was released on bail, police said
Saturday.
BBC arrest
British counterterrorism
police arrested a man, who said he was a friend of a suspect in the
Woolwich soldier killing, after he gave an interview to the BBC on
Friday night, the British broadcaster said.
The man, Abu Nusaybah,
was arrested on suspected terrorism offenses after telling on air how
his friend had been approached by Britain's domestic intelligence
service, known as MI5, according to the broadcaster.
A BBC staffer, who did
not want to be named, told CNN that police were inside the BBC
Broadcasting House building in central London waiting for the interview
to conclude before they made the arrest.
Friends, acquaintances
and British media identified 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo, a British
national of Nigerian descent, as the suspect seen in a gory video from
the scene of the Woolwich killing.
Authorities have not
identified that individual or the 22-year-old man seized with him at the
scene by armed police. Both suspects were shot and remain in hospital.
Man who taped London suspect speaks out
Who are London terror suspects?
Friend of attack suspect speaks to CNN
A Scotland Yard spokesman told CNN the arrest at the BBC was not connected to the murder investigation in Woolwich.
The brutal killing has
sparked concerns that anti-Muslim sentiment may flare up in communities
angered by the killing of the soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby.
Members
of a far-right group, the English Defence League, called for Muslims to
leave Britain as they rallied in Newcastle, northern England, on
Saturday. The protest march came only hours after a group that
monitors anti-Muslim abuse told CNN of a big spike in reported incidents
in the past two days.
'Changed and withdrawn'
In the interview with
BBC's Newsnight, Nusaybah said MI5 had approached Adebolajo in the past
year, asking if he wanted to work for them.
Adebolajo rejected the approach, according to his friend.
Abu Nusaybah said the
contact from MI5 occurred last year after Adebolajo returned from a
visit to Kenya during which he was detained by security forces.
Adebolajo told his friend that he was physically assaulted and sexually threatened during his detention.
CNN is working to independently verify the allegations made by Abu Nusaybah about his friend's treatment in detention.
Abu Nusaybah went on to say that Adebolajo appeared changed and withdrawn after his return from Kenya.
The pair first met in
2002, he said. Abu Nusaybah had converted to Islam in late 2004 and
Adebolajo followed suit about four months later, he said.
A security source told CNN that "we would never comment" on the kind of allegations made in the interview.
London's Metropolitan
Police Service said a 31-year-old man had been arrested in London Friday
night on terrorism-related offenses, but following standard practice,
would not give the arrested man's name.
Officers from Counter
Terrorism Command arrested the man under the Terrorism Act, on suspicion
of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. He
was taken to a south London police station, where he remains in custody,
a police statement said.
Search warrants were being executed at two homes in east London, police said.
Kenya arrest
Kenyan counterterrorism
sources told CNN Saturday that Adebolajo traveled to Kenya in November
2010 and was arrested in the coastal town of Lamu for trying to cross
illegally into Somalia.
Lamu is part of an area
near the Somali border that has been the stage for attacks by armed
gangs and suspected operatives from the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab
militant group.
After his arrest, Adebolajo was then taken by Kenyan authorities to a court in Mombasa in November 2010, the sources said.
No charges were filed against him, according to the Kenyan media.
It's not clear whether Adebolajo may have traveled to the region on more than one occasion.
CNN understands that one
line of inquiry being examined in the Woolwich terror investigation is
that Adebolajo might have attempted -- but failed -- to travel to
Somalia some time last year.
'Al Muhajiroun connections'
A self-proclaimed former
radical associate of Abu Nusaybah told CNN Terrorism Analyst Paul
Cruickshank he had been a follower of the group Al-Muhajiroun, a British
group of Islamic extremists virulently opposed to UK intervention in
Iraq and openly supportive of al Qaeda.
The former associate --
who spoke to CNN on condition of not being named -- spent time with
Nusaybah in Al-Muhajiroun study groups in Luton, a town north of London,
in the years leading up to the July 7, 2005, attacks on London's
transit system, he said.
At the time, Adebolajo
himself was a follower of the group and attended meetings in London,
according to several Al-Muhajiroun insiders, before moving away from the
group two or three years ago.
"Abu Nusaybah was very quiet, always smiling, and very religious," said his former friend, who has now shed his radical views.
He said their circle of
friends in Luton included Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly, who carried out a
suicide bombing in Stockholm in December 2010 in which he was the only
fatality.
He said Abu Nusaybah had connections to a grouping of Somali extremists in Luton.
It is understood that
the two individuals suspected in the knife and cleaver attack were known
to Britain's domestic security service. They had featured in previous
investigations into other individuals, but were not themselves under
surveillance.
CNN's Lonzo Cook, Neda Farshbaf, Victoria
Eastwood, Bharati Naik, Dan Rivers, Jonathan Wald and Ed Payne
contributed to this report.
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