British investigators hunted on Saturday for the suspected al Qaeda bombers who killed more than 50 people on London underground trains and a bus as an Islamist group made a new claim of responsibility for the attacks. Flowers, notes and appeals for information about missing relatives were piled outside King's Cross station, where bodies were still trapped deep underground. More than 25 people, of many nationalities and religions, were still unaccounted for. "Barbarism will never kill freedom," read one note in French. "Madrid is with London," said another.Police said 49 people were confirmed dead, but emergency staff were still trying to retrieve bodies in one of the subway system's deepest tunnels two days after the blasts. British leaders have vowed defiance, and the stoicism of Londoners has been widely praised since the attacks, awakening memories of the capital's resilience during World War II as the country prepared to mark the 60th anniversary of the war's end. "This type of terrorism has very deep roots ... it is only when you start to pull it up by the roots that you will deal with it," Prime Minister Tony Blair told BBC radio. "Our revulsion at terrorism is not just a revulsion at the loss of life and innocent bloodshed. It is also a revulsion at trying to create change by these barbaric methods of violence and we will resist that and we are resisting that."
The government says the attacks bear the hallmarks of Osama bin Laden's Islamic militant al Qaeda network, which was behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. A group claiming links to al Qaeda called the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades said on Saturday it was behind the blasts and suggested it could strike again. It was the third such claim by an Islamist group since the blasts. "We will not rest until security becomes a reality in the land of Islam and Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine," it said in an Internet statement.
The group, whose links to al Qaeda are unclear, has claimed authorship of previous attacks in Turkey and Spain. But intelligence sources have treated its statements skeptically, seeing it as an opportunistic group trying to associate itself to the al Qaeda 'brand'. Two other groups had already claimed responsibility for the London attacks, saying the blasts were punishment for Britain's involvement in Iraq and other U.S. allies could be next.