The key figures in a plot to blow up several passenger planes flying between Britain and the United States are now in custody, Home Secretary (interior minister) John Reid said on Thursday. "The police are confident that the main players have been accounted for," Reid told a news conference, adding the operation was ongoing and further arrests might be made. Police are holding 21 people in connection with the plot, which Reid said would have caused "a loss of life to innocent civilians ... on an unprecedented scale". The suspects were seized in overnight raids in London, southeast England and Britain's second city Birmingham, Reuters reported.
