The raids were carried out at homes in London, the nearby town of High Wycombe and in Birmingham, in central England. Police still guarded homes in High Wycombe, where the Muslim community expressed outrage that their community and children have been thrust into the international spotlight.

"They are considered ordinary British Muslims and they haven't caused any harm to anyone," accountant Mohammed Naeem said of the suspects. "They come from decent families."

Naeem said the Muslim community supports efforts to promote security, but that the police have acted on faulty intelligence in the past. He cited a recent raid in London in which police were forced to apologize for shooting an innocent Muslim man.

Many of the suspects arrested in Britain were said to be British Muslims, and neighbors said at least two were converts to Islam.

Imtiaz Qadir, of the Waltham Forest Islamic Association, said one of the suspects was a woman in her 20s who had a 6-month-old child. "They have taken the child too, because it needs to be with its mother."

Neighbors identified another suspect as Don Stewart-Whyte, 21, from High Wycombe, a convert who changed his name to Abdul Waheed.

"He converted to Islam about six months ago and grew a full beard," said a neighbor, who refused to be identified. "He used to smoke weed and drink a lot, but he is completely different now."

Ibrahim Savant of Walthamstow, one of the names on the Bank of England list, was a convert formerly known as Oliver, neighbors said.

New security measures banning liquids and gels on flights remained in place Friday.

"I quite understand all the checks. I know why they have got to do it," said Elaine Loman, who was hoping to catch a flight from Heathrow to Barcelona, Spain.

The threat of liquid explosives led to a ban on carrying nearly any kind of fluid aboard an aircraft. Mothers tasted baby bottles in front of airport security guards to prove it contained milk or formula — not a component of an explosive.

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Associated Press Writers Pat Milton and Tom Hays in New York, Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington, Jay Lindsay in Boston and Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad contributed to this report.