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British Police Arrest 3 New Suspects in Soldier's Killing


Drummer Lee Rigby, of the British Army's 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, is seen in an undated photo released May 23, 2013.
Drummer Lee Rigby, of the British Army's 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, is seen in an undated photo released May 23, 2013.
British police have arrested three new suspects in connection with Wednesday's murder of a British soldier in London.

Scotland Yard issued a statement saying three men in their 20's were arrested Saturday, two of them at a residential address in southeast London and one on a London street. Officers used stun guns in two of the arrests, but no one was hospitalized.

All three were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.

British soldier Lee Rigby, who had served a tour of duty in Afghanistan, was killed in broad daylight Wednesday, near the Royal Artillery Barracks in the Woolwich area of southeast London. Video footage shows a suspected murderer wielding a knife, shouting threats and "God is Great" in Arabic.

On Saturday, thousands of people took to the streets of the northern British city of Newcastle to protest Rigby's murder and demand more government efforts to monitor radicals and extremists in the country.

Two suspects in the stabbing were shot by policemen and apprehended soon after the killing. Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale remain under guard in a hospital.

Both suspects are believed to have converted to Islam after being brought up Christian by their African immigrant families. The two men told bystanders they were acting in retaliation against British forces killing Muslims. Neither one has been charged.

Another young man was arrested Friday night on "suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism."

News reports identify him as Abu Nusaybah, a friend of the main suspect, Michael Adebolajo. In an interview with the BBC hours before his arrest, Nusaybah said Adebolajo had been approached by Britain's security service months ago to work as an informant, which he refused. Nusaybah said Adebolajo had changed after a visit to Kenya.
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