A 48-year-old man arrested in Newport in connection with the Parsons Green terror attack has been released from custody with no further action.
It comes just hours after Yahyah Farroukh, 21, was also allowed to leave without charge following his arrest at Aladdin’s Fried Chicken in Hounslow on Saturday.
After his arrest last Saturday, his sister said: ‘Yahyah is innocent, we know he is. He could never hurt a fly. Why would he hurt the family that adopted him or the country that welcomed him?’
Anti-terror detectives are still questioning four men and searching four properties.
Yahyah Farroukh, 21, was arrested in Hounslow, west London, as part of the investigation into the blast, which injured 30, but released without charge. Just hours later a 48-year-old man was also released without charge
Mahdi Ramadi, known as Bilal, was arrested in Newport on Tuesday, according to locals
Witnesses to the arrest said Ramadi was smiling when spoken to by police. He was told to lay on the ground as officers arrested him
Police outside the home in Thornton Heath where the latest arrest was made in the Parsons Green tube bombing probe
Police investigating the bombing have now arrested six people in London, Kent and Wales
Four people, including a 17-year-old boy, continue to be questioned in connection with the rush hour bombing, which injured 30.
The teenager was detained after officers raided what neighbours described as a ‘halfway house’ in Thornton Heath, south London, at around 12.05am on Thursday.
The investigation has also seen two men aged 25 and 30 detained in Newport, south Wales, and an 18-year-old man detained at the Port of Dover.
Warrants for the further detention of the 25-year-old and 30-year-old men were granted until Tuesday.
Scotland Yard said: ‘A 21-year-old man arrested in connection with the investigation into the terrorist attack at Parson’s Green Tube Station has been released from police custody with no further action.
‘The man was arrested in Hounslow at 11.50pm on Saturday, 16 September.
‘A warrant for his further detention had been granted by Westminster Magistrates’ Court until today, Thursday, 21 September. He was subsequently released.
Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Met Counter Terrorism Command, said: ‘This continues to be a fast-moving investigation. A significant amount of activity has taken place since the attack on Friday.
‘We anticipate that the searches will take some days to complete and may cause further disruption. However, it is important that we continue with these searches and I’d like to thank all those affected for their support, patience and cooperation.’
Mahdi Ramadi, known as Bilal, was named locally as the first of three men detained yesterday in Newport, with witnesses saying he smiled when police moved in to arrest him.
This is the moment a third man was arrested in connection with the Parsons Green bombing
In Thornton Heath, forensics experts are scouring a three-storey house in the suburb where the 17-year-old was arrested this morning.
Neighbours say the property houses asylum seekers being dealt with by the Home Office.
Neighbours of the newly-raided house – which they claimed to have seen police visit before – raided said they heard loud banging at around midnight.
Tom McCall, who lives behind the end terrace house, said: ‘A couple of weeks ago there was a two police cars outside and some informed officers went inside the house. But we didn’t read anything into it until this recent incident.’
Grandmother Ola Anderson said of last night’s raid: ‘I was in bed when I heard all these loud bangs and loud noises. I quickly jumped up and looked out the window and saw about 20 police officers.
‘My husband went down to ask if we should be concerned about this. ‘They said ‘nothing to worry about, we’re acting on intelligence’.
Pamela Emanuel, 54, said of the property: ‘The house was sold to the current owner around 15 years ago and it’s used as a halfway house for people with a question mark over their immigration status.’
Ms Emanuel did some repairs in the house and described the men there as ‘nice and pleasant’.
He was the first of three arrests in Newport, south Wales. Two others were detained on Wednesday
In Newport on Tuesday, Ramadi was pinned down by armed officers in the middle of the street.
The two other suspects were arrested a few hours later just two miles away in a raid on a property, also said to be a ‘halfway house’ for asylum seekers.
Ramadi was held at 7.15pm on Tuesday after leaving a halal meat shop. One witness said: ‘A big van pulled up and six officers got out and jumped this guy. There were two armed officers. The guy was smiling. I didn’t hear him saying anything.’
Ten hours later, at 5am yesterday, police arrested the two older men, aged 30 and 48, at a property in Newport that was being used by the Home Office as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers.
Yesterday, the husband of the owner of the raided house in Newport, said: ‘It’s a Government-run property.
‘We wouldn’t know who was in or out of there. The property is owned by us but the local government take control, they put asylum seekers in there.’
Police were seen going through the property’s garden this morning as the probe continues
Locals said the house raided by police in south London was also used to house refugees
Police forensics experts are now searching the property in south London (pictured), as well as the two addresses in the west of the capital and two in Wales
Police set up a tent in front of the house and brought bins from the house in to be examined
Locals said Ramadi is a Kurdish student and part-time painter and decorator from Iraq, the same country as the teenage refugee suspected of planting the Parsons Green bomb. Neighbours believe he is also studying in Cardiff.
Bilal Rehman, an elder at the mosque where Ramadi is said to have worshipped until around six months ago, claimed last night that he may have already been on the police radar. He said: ‘He came to the UK when he was 15 or 16 for a safe haven.
‘He was a gentle, quiet man who was studying construction or something to do with the building trade at college in Cardiff.
‘But I think he may have already been known to the police. Officers went to his house about a year ago – they found books, I think.’
One local Muslim resident claimed the suspect had recently started receiving visitors in expensive cars from London. He said: ‘He was always very humble, happy to be in the UK.
‘But recently he started to receive visitors from people driving Mercedes and Jeeps, expensive cars with registration plates from London dealerships. It was very odd.’
Police arrested two other men in an early morning raid in this terraced street in the city. Locals say the property is run as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers
Forensics experts were today seen scouring the first of two addresses raided in this city
Another friend of the refugee said he was a ‘serious’ young man who spent his days praying and was ‘proud of being a Kurd’.
Neighbour Abid Ali said Ramadi refused to discuss his views on the Islamic State group and terrorism when asked about it. Mr Ali said: ‘I just wanted to know what he thought about what was going on in the world, but he said, ‘Just leave it.’
‘That was about a month ago – I am very shocked by his arrest and didn’t sleep last night. I had told him that life is too short and he should enjoy himself.
‘But when he’s not working he goes to pray at one of the local mosques. He has no girlfriend, I asked him why and he said, ‘No chance’.’
Residents said Ramadi would go door-to-door looking for work. One woman, who did not want to be named, said: ‘He did some painting on our house about two years ago. He was a nice guy.
‘He used to condemn terrorism – my husband would condemn it and he would agree with him.’
A photograph taken on the tube at Parsons Green shows wires and a bucket on fire on Friday
Officers have arrested a sixth suspect following the terrorist attack at Parsons Green on Friday
Welsh links to ISIS jihadis and terrorist plots
It is not the first time south Wales has been at the centre off a police terror probe.
In 2014, it emerged that at least three students brought up in Cardiff had gone to fight for ISIS in Syria. Two even appeared in a video encouraging others to join them.
And in 2012 Cardiff brothers Gurukanth Desai, and Abdul Miah, were jailed along with Omar Latif, also from the city, for plotting Mumbai-style attacks in Britain.
A leading academic said in 2014 that he was convinced young Muslim men in the Welsh capital were being recruited in face-to-face meetings.
There is no suggestion the men arrested in the last 24 hours have links to the previous plots.
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