By DPA
London : British police were Monday holding seven terrorism suspects, including two medical doctors from the Middle East, in a fast-moving investigation to track down the perpetrators of three attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow, Scotland.
The arrest Monday of two men in Paisley, near Glasgow, brought to seven the number of suspects held by police since two foiled car bombings in London and a dramatic attempt to drive a blazing Jeep into Glasgow airport Saturday.
Police have said that none of the suspects are British, as unconfirmed reports said two of the men are believed to be doctors of Middle East origin.
But the family of one of the suspects Monday denied that he had any links with the attempted attacks.
British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told parliament Monday that 19 locations had been searched since the first attempted car bombing in London early Friday, as security measures were stepped up at airports, railway stations and shopping centres.
"Terrorists are criminals whose victims come from across society," said Smith, vowing that Britain, while showing a "measured and patient response", would not be intimidated by terrorism.
One of the men under arrest was named Monday as Mohammed al-Asha, a 26-year-old Jordanian neurologist who worked at a hospital in Stoke-on-Trent, central Britain.
Al-Asha and his wife were arrested during a motorway hunt in Cheshire, northern Britain, Saturday, travelling with their two-year-old son.
However, his family and university professors in Jordan Monday described al-Asha as a "brilliant" doctor who had never been recruited by extremist organisations.
They said al-Asha, a postgraduate of Palestinian origin, had planned to visit Jordan on July 12.
Al-Asha, who had been studying neurology at Birmingham University, had no "criminal or security record" in Jordan, official sources said.
His father said he had appealed to Jordan's King Abdullah II to use his leverage to obtain his release.
It also emerged Monday that the passenger in the Jeep which smashed into Glasgow airport's main terminal Saturday was also a doctor, named as Bilal Abdulla from Iraq, who qualified in Baghdad three years ago.
It was also revealed that police in Scotland appeared to have had prior information of the planned attack on Glasgow airport, in which no one was injured, but one of the attackers suffered serious burns.
Officers had tried to contact an estate agent, who let a house to one of the Jeep suspects, only 10 minutes before the attack, reports said.
The Let-In estate agency was traced from mobile phone records found during the search of the vehicles used in the attempted attacks in London, sources said.
But the owner of the letting agency, Daniel Gardiner, was only able to respond to police efforts to contact him two hours later – after the attempted attack had happened.
"The police wanted to know why we had dialled a certain phone number. They had the phone records from the situation down in London," Gardiner said Monday.
He said one of his tenants was a doctor working at the Royal Alexandra hospital in Paisley, near Glasgow, where the driver of the Jeep is being kept under armed guard – while being treated for severe burns.
Police Sunday carried out a controlled explosion on a car in the hospital car park which it said was linked to the investigations, and on Monday officers were seen cordoning off doctors' living quarters at the hospital.
A further controlled explosion was carried out during a hospital search Monday, as police confirmed that a suspect device had been found in the accommodation block.
There was also speculation Monday that one of the men involved in the Glasgow attempt may have driven one of the Mercedes saloon car bombs to London's West End.
Britain remained on a "critical" state of terror alert, the highest grade possible, after the attempted attacks, which started off with a Mercedes car filled with petrol, gas and nails, parked outside a busy London nightclub in the early hours of last Friday.
Police, who are linking the three failed attacks, said the two men involved in the attempted Jeep attack "came to Scotland a short while ago to seek work."
Police have so far declined to comment on the background and nationalities of the suspects, except to say that none was British.
Such a development would divert the media spotlight away from British-born Muslims, who had initially been suspected of being behind the failed attacks, and who are held responsible for the transport suicide bombings in London two years ago which claimed 52 lives.
Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism unit, has said the results in the fast-moving probe were "changing hourly."