Survivors of the bomb blast on London's Tavistock Square have testified they saw a "suicide bomber" on board. The packed Number 30 bus was ripped apart by the explosion at 9.47am on Thursday.
Richard Jones, who was travelling on the bus, said he is convinced he saw a bomber setting a device. The 61-year-old told The Sun newspaper: "I noticed him as he looked nervous. He was continually diving into his bag, rummaging round and looking in it."
Terence Mutasa, 27, a staff nurse at University College hospital, told The Sun: "I treated two girls in their 20s who were involved in the bus bomb. "They were saying some guy came and sat down and that he exploded."
Meanhile, the London bombings were strongly condemned by Muslims and Arabs in editorials appeared Friday in the leading newspapers. However, at least one newspaper blamed the US "unilateral" policies for instigating violence.
Other papers expressed fears of possible reprisals against Muslim and Arab communities in the West in reacting go the attacks that killed at least 55.
The United Arab Emirates' Al-Khaleej newspaper blamed the US decision to go to war in Iraq for partly contributing to inciting violence. "Arab leaders, as well as European peoples and some Western leaders had said that the war in Iraq was unjustifiable, and that it would open the bag of snakes ... but the war's mobbish platform won in the end ... and it proceeds afoot in its wrong policies, with blood drawing blood," it said.
The English daily Gulf News said: "The 'war on terror' cannot be won by rhetoric, but by marginalising the fanatics and removing the underlying reasons that attract idealistic young people to their wicked cause."
In Saudi Arabia, Saudi Gazette feared for reprisals against Muslim community in Britain from "fanatic" nationalists.
"It seems inevitable that the UK's Muslim community will be the objects of such hostility. The fanatics that perpetrated the London attacks, are doing their religion a disservice, but then they have been doing so ever since 9/11."
Qatar's Al-Sharq also feared for the "reprisal" against Arab and Muslim communities in the West to avenge "the acts of a gang which does not represent a nation or a religion."
