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Six men and a woman held as police 'smash terror plot to bomb Britain'

*       Men detained following raids in Birmingham's Moseley, Sparkbrook,
Sparkhill, Ward End and Balsall Heath
*       Woman, 22, arrested in Saltley on suspicion of failing to disclose
information contrary to the Terrorism Act 2000 
*       One of the addresses searched by police today is registered to
Mohammed Irfan - previously jailed for his part in plotting to kidnap a
Muslim British soldier and behead him live on the internet

By  <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Andy+Dolan>
Andy Dolan and
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=James+Slack>
James Slack

Last updated at 7:57 AM on 20th September 2011

Police and security officials believe they have smashed a plot by home-grown
terrorists to kill hundreds in an Al Qaeda-inspired attack on Britain.

One of 14 homes raided by officers yesterday belongs to a convicted
terrorist involved in a conspiracy to capture and behead a British soldier.

Acting on intelligence from MI5, counter-terrorism police in Birmingham
arrested six men and a woman, who were all born in Britain and hold UK
passports. 

Description: Description: Police forensic officers cover a car in Birmingham
following the arrests of six men in Birmingham as part of a large
intelligence-led counter-terrorism operation

Police forensic officers cover a car in Birmingham following the arrests of
six men in Birmingham as part of a large intelligence-led counter-terrorism
operation

Description: Description: Investigation: A car was taken away by the police
after an anti-terrorism operation this morning 

Investigation: A car was taken away by the police after an anti-terrorism
operation this morning 

Description: Description: Sealed off: The road was cordoned off after police
swooped in

Sealed off: The road was cordoned off after police swooped in 

They are suspected of being in the latter stages of planning an atrocity,
though a precise target had yet to be chosen. Police say they swooped to
protect public safety.

Whitehall sources say it is the biggest plot to have been disrupted by the
security services this year. It comes only three months after officials
downgraded the threat to the UK from severe to substantial.

Fourteen Birmingham addresses, including one business, were being searched
yesterday. 

They included a terraced property owned by Mohammed Irfan, 34, and Mohammed
Rizwan, who preach at a mosque. Forensics officers were also seen yesterday
searching a neighbouring home in the city’s deprived Ward End district.

Description: Description: Questions: Police speak to a taxi driver outside a
home close to where the terror arrests took place

Questions: Police speak to a taxi driver outside a home close to where the
terror arrests took place

Irfan was jailed for four years in February 2008 after admitting being part
of plot to behead a Muslim soldier as warning to other Muslims about joining
the British Army. He was released on licence in October 2009.

Those under arrest were said by neighbours to include a nursery nurse and
two brothers. One of the addresses was an imposing five-bedroom detached
home occupied by a taxi driver and his five sons. A neighbour said two of
the sons had been seen firing an air rifle at a target in the garden on
Sunday.

The arrests were carried out across the largely Asian inner-city
neighbourhoods of Alum Rock, Sparkbrook, Ward End and Moseley, a suburb
popular with students and young professionals. 

Description: Description: Map

 

Although the terror suspects were home-grown, sources said the plot had an
‘international dimension’.

West Midlands Police said six men – aged between 25 and 32 – were arrested
overnight on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an
act of terrorism in the UK following a joint investigation by both police
and MI5.

A 22-year-old-woman, named by neighbours as nursery nurse Salma Kabal, from
Alum Rock, was said to have been arrested at 7am on suspicion of failing to
disclose information contrary to the Terrorism Act 2000. 

Neighbours in the terraced street yesterday said Kabal comes from a
‘moderate’ Pakistani family and is the eldest of five children. 

Her mother is said to work as a school dinner lady, while her father is a
former council worker. 

She married two years ago but was said to have divorced her husband six
months ago. One neighbour said: ‘He moved in with her and wore a long
Islamic beard. 

‘He didn’t seem to work, but was more extremist than his wife. I understand
they split up because he wanted to take her to live in a madrassa in Karachi
in Pakistan.’ The husband was believed to be Ashiq Ali, who was arrested
with his brother Bahader, 28, who runs a gym.

The brothers are understood to have an English stepmother, who converted to
Islam before marrying their father, a taxi driver.

Description: Description: Swoop: A police forensic officer enters a house
during the raids

Swoop: A police forensic officer enters a house during the raids

Neighbours said Kabal adopted the full Islamic niqab after marrying in a
Islamic service carried out at her home. She is said to have cast off the
full veil in recent weeks. 

One witness reported seeing three men being arrested as they climbed into an
old Volkswagen Passat in Sparkbrook. The car was later taken away for
examination. 

Police say the arrests were made by unarmed officers, indicating there was
no expectation of finding explosives or weapons during the raids. 

David Rose, 50, a marketing executive who lives next to the address raided
in Moseley, said: ‘They took away the father’s black cab and three or four
other cars owned by the sons. The police also found a lot of religious
paraphernalia – a loud hailer, Islamic leaflets and other stuff.’

The arrests were not related to the Liberal Democrat conference, which is
taking place at the city’s International Convention Centre.

Why the terrorism threat to the UK remains high

The alleged Birmingham plot is considered ‘the biggest in numbers and scale’
since the end of 2010, according to officials in the security services. 

Back then, nine suspects were charged with plotting a Christmas bomb blitz
on London landmarks. All nine are still awaiting trial.

There have been other arrests since, but nothing to rival dawn raids in
Birmingham, leading to six men and one woman being taken in custody on
suspicion of plotting a mass casualty attack.

The case is a reminder that – while Al Qaeda-inspired terrorism has not been
making headlines this year – the threat to the UK remains grave.

There are a number of reasons why people may have felt less at risk in
recent months.

Chief among them is the killing of Osama bin Laden and the deaths of other
senior Al Qaeda figures in the lawless borderlands between Pakistan and
Afghanistan. 

This has led officials in Washington to speak of the much reduced threat
posed by the organisation.

However, long before the killing of its leader, Al Qaeda was acting as an
inspiration for would-be fanatics in Britain, rather than playing an
operational or planning role in attacks.

Terrorists are no longer necessarily imported from overseas, but radicalised
in the UK over the internet. All those arrested yesterday hold British
passports.

There was also a reduction in the published UK terror threat level in July,
moving it down from severe to substantial .

Severe means the risk of a terrorist attack is considered to be a strong
possibility and ‘might well occur without further warning’.

The substantial level – which officials do not intend to change after
yesterday’s arrests – means an attack is a strong possibility.

Security sources say the lower threat does not mean there has been a
reduction in terrorist activity, but rather that plots are being detected
and disrupted earlier.

The workload – the number of potential terrorists who are being monitored –
is as great as at any time in the past five or six years, officials say.

With the Olympics on the horizon – considered the biggest peace-time
security challenge this country has faced – it is likely to get worse before
it gets better.

 

 



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