LONDON - All 12,000 members of the U.S. Air Force stationed in Britain have been banned from visiting London because of last week's bombings, newspapers reported on Tuesday, and one daily slammed the decision as "timid".
American military chiefs issued the "battle staff directive" on Friday, a day after bombs on three underground trains and a double-decker bus killed at least 52 people, The Daily Telegraph and The Times newspapers reported.
A U.S. spokeswoman was quoted as saying that military staff were not allowed to go anywhere inside the M25 orbital motorway belt surrounding the capital until further notice, "because the security of our people is our top concern."
"Family members who are U.S. civilians and are not subject to orders are also being encouraged to stay away from London," the spokeswoman, Cindy Dorfner, was quoted as saying.
Londoners, by comparison, were encouraged to return to work as usual and the media lauded the city's "get on with it" attitude.
The Daily Mail newspaper slammed the U.S. military ban as "timid" coming after U.S. President George W. Bush's pledge last week that Britons could count on America to stand with them.
"It was business as usual in brave and resilient London yesterday- though not if you were a member of the world's most powerful military machine," the Daily Mail said in an editorial.
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