Yasin Hassan Omar, left, caught on camera at Warren Street Tube station, and Muktar Said-Ibrahim, who is thought to failed to explode his bomb on the No 26 bus

ON THE rundown North London housing estate where they lived, they were known as idlers and petty criminals who passed their time playing football and smoking marijuana.

Residents of Curtis House in New Southgate regarded Muktar Said-Ibrahim and Yasin Hassan Omar as feckless young men living aimlessly on state benefits.

Ibrahim had served time in Huntercombe Young Offenders’ Institution, Oxfordshire, according to Whitehall sources, and Omar, was known as a shoplifter.

As children, both fled civil war and bloody conflict in Eritrea and Somalia for the safe refuge of Britain. Yet they came to hate their adopted homeland so much that they volunteered for suicide bombing missions.

In preparing for “martyrdom” Ibrahim, 27, and Omar, 24, had turned the tower block that they shared with hundreds of people into a terrorist safe house and a bomb factory. Forensic science teams have found traces of explosives in flat No 58 and the rubbish chute as well as a substantial cache of bombmaking chemicals in a lock-up garage.

Tanya Wright, who lives on the floor below Omar’s rented flat in Curtis House, said that she saw both men on Friday afternoon, the day after the failed bombing attempts. “I saw them acting suspiciously outside their flat,” Miss Wright said. “As soon as they saw me they jumped back in the flat and shut the door. They looked shocked and panicked.”

She has given a statement to police who are increasingly concerned that, having failed in their missions, Ibrahim and Omar returned to rearm and try again.

The would-be bombers both arrived in Britain as refugees from Africa. Omar, a Somalian, arrived in 1992, aged 11. He is thought to have spent most of the next seven years in foster care. He was granted exceptional leave to enter Britain for four years. That was extended and in May 2000 he was granted indefinite leave to remain, entitling him to live permanently in Britain. He has been able to work legally since he was 16.

Ibrahim, also known as Muktar Mohammed-Said, was given exceptional leave to remain in Britain in 1992. He had arrived with his family from Eritrea. In November 2003 he applied for British citizenship which was granted, with a passport, last September.

Ten months before he tried to blow up a No 26 bus in Hackney, East London, he swore an oath of allegiance, stating that he would be “faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, her Heirs and Successors, according to law”.

There was growing concern in Whitehall last night over how he had made a successful citizenship application despite having a conviction.

Ibrahim was once a criminal gang member jailed for violent muggings, it emerged last night. A year after leaving school, he was arrested in Royston, Hertfordshire, after a street robbery. Members of the gang were jailed at Luton Crown Court in 1996 for terms ranging between two and four years after admitting five robberies in the Welwyn Garden City and Stevenage areas. Ibrahim received five years because he had been carrying a knife.

Ibrahim also committed crimes in Letchworth.

He served his sentence at Huntercombe Young Offenders’ Institution, near Henley-on Thames, and later at HMP Woodhill, Buckinghamshire, it was claimed last night. One report stated that he took part in a riot in which several prison officers were hurt.

The Home Office was unable to comment last night on how Ibrahim was able to obtain a British passport following his conviction and prison sentence.


One former friend, a member of the same criminal gang, said that Ibrahim turned to radical Islam after meeting fellow Muslim inmates in jail. “I bumped into him [after he had left prison]. He had grown a beard and moustache and was wearing Muslim headgear. I asked: ‘What happened?’ He smiled and answered, ‘I’m taking life a bit more seriously’.”
The former friend, also jailed for the same offence, said when he had first met Ibrahim, he was a swaggering, teenager who drank alcohol and smoked marijuana.

Ibrahim was known as a menacing, drug-smoking racist bully at Canons High School in Edgware, North London. He attended the school between 1992 and 1996. Wayne Howard, a white former pupil of the school, claimed that Ibrahim once racially abused him to provoke a fight. “He called me a ‘white honky’. I was furious and swore back. It was what he wanted — he punched me hard in the face and I ended up with a bad black eye. He was excluded twice for fighting,” he said.

Ibrahim’s parents, Mohammed and Esha, who live in Stanmore, where many East African refugees settled, said yesterday that they were shocked to see their son pictured as one of the would-be suicide bombers.

Police confirmed that the family contacted them immediately, bringing the first firm information that enabled police to name the bomb suspects and find their hideaway. In a statement the family said they were peaceful people and had acted immediately after seeing Ibrahim’s image on television.They said: “We immediately attended the local police station and made statements to the police.

“Muktar left this address in 1994. He is 27 years of age. He lives alone elsewhere. He is not a close family member. He has not visited here for many months. The family wish to express their shock regarding recent events and in no way condone any acts of terrorism.”

One of the family’s neighbours said that she had seen him recently and he spoke of a wish to die as a martyr. Sarah Scott, 23, who has known Ibrahim for 12 years, said that in November he handed her a copy of a pamphlet called Understanding Islam, written by an Islamic scholar.

She said: “He asked me if I was Catholic because I have Irish family and I said I didn’t believe in anything. He said I should. He told me he was going to have all these virgins when he got to Heaven if he praises Allah. He said if you pray to Allah and if you have been loyal to Allah you would get 80 virgins, or something like that.

“He gave me a book and told me to read it. He said it would change my views. He said people were afraid of religion and people should not be afraid.”

One paragraph in the book, by Dr Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, highlighted by Ibrahim, said: “Anyone who says ‘there is no God (worthy of worship) except Allah’ and dies holding to that (belief) will enter Paradise.”

Ibrahim is thought to have moved to New Southgate in about 2000. Omar had been a Curtis House tenant since leaving care at 18, paying rent with £88 a week housing benefit.

The two are thought to have become friends because of shared interests in Islam — both are believed to have worshipped at Finsbury Park mosque — and football, playing regularly in nearby Arnos Park. Neighbours in the block said they were both “lads” who, until recently, were seen hanging around with the “wrong crowd”.

Muhammad Hassan, a grocery store owner, said that he once banned Omar from his shop. “I saw him trying to steal some food,” Mr Hassan said. “I told him to leave and never to come back. He was always living off social benefit and paid for food and telephone top-up cards with small change.”

He said that in recent years he saw Ibrahim and Omar together in his shop, usually late at night.

Sammy Jones, 33, said she recognised Ibrahim as the man named by police as having targeted the No 26 bus. He had been staying at a flat on the ninth floor with two or three other men. Ms Jones said that she recently saw some of the men from the flat filling the lift with cardboard boxes.

Ms Jones said: “I asked what it was, and one of them said ‘wallpaper stripper’.”