The first bomb, which was placed in a busy shopping area of the predominantly black London district of Brixton on April 17, injured 39 people.
The second bomb was placed in the market street of Brick Lane, a mostly Bangladeshi area of the East End on April 24. Seven people were injured.
The police are now convinced that the bombings are racially motivated. Sir Paul Condon, the commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, said he had “very serious fears” that there will be “a continuing series of vicious attacks.”
Police believe the bombings were conducted by Combat-18, a small, violent organization that broke with the far-right National Front, now virtually defunct, in the mid-1980s.
Combat-18 — the first and eighth letter of the alphabet corresponding to Hitler’s initials — has claimed responsibility for the bombings in calls to police.
Another leading suspect is a Combat-18 splinter group, the White Wolves, which is thought to consider Combat-18 too soft.
The White Wolves have warned Jews, as well as black and Asian immigrants, to leave Britain by the end of the year or face extermination.
Mike Whine, the Jewish Community Security Trust’s director, said it was logical to anticipate that, after attacks on the black and Asian communities, the next attack would be directed against a Jewish group.