Britain Arrests Six in Connection With Tel Aviv Homicide Bombing

LONDON – Police have detained six people in England in connection with a Tel Aviv (search) homicide bombing believed to have been carried out by a British man, Scotland Yard said Saturday.

Officers detained two men and two women in Derbyshire and another woman in nearby Nottinghamshire on Friday, police said. A third man was apprehended in London early Saturday.

Scotland Yard said the suspects were detained under Britain's Terrorism Act but did not release their names or details of their cases. They were not charged with any crime.

Three people were killed in the explosion Wednesday at Mike's Place (search), a Tel Aviv bar.

Israeli police identified the bomber as Asif Hanif (search), 21, from the London suburb of Hounslow. They said Omar Khan Sharif (search), 27, of Derby in central England, fled when his bomb failed to detonate.

Israeli police have been searching for Sharif since the attack, focusing their manhunt on south Tel Aviv, a run-down area popular with foreign workers.

Israeli police have been searching for Sharif since the attack, focusing their manhunt on south Tel Aviv, a run-down area popular with foreign workers. Scotland Yard did not specify whether any of those arrested in Derbyshire, which includes Sharif's hometown, were related to or associated with him. Neighbors have said Sharif was seen near his Derby home days before the attack.

Police said the five suspects were detained "as part of ongoing inquiries being carried out following a terrorist incident in Tel Aviv on Wednesday."

Detectives were bringing them to police stations in central London. No other details were immediately released.

The suicide bombing, the first to be carried out by a foreigner in the current round of Israeli-Palestinian violence, killed a waitress and two musicians at the pub. It was the 89th suicide bombing in 31 months of violence.

The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades both claimed responsibility.