| See the article below for the stuff snipped from this one, as these are the eight Libyans referenced in that article. |
Anti-terrorist police who arrested eight Libyans in a series of dawn raids yesterday believe they may have thwarted the next wave of suicide bomb attacks on British and US forces in Iraq.
The suspects, picked up at the end of a year-long investigation centred on Manchester, are being held on suspicion of either encouraging al-Qa'eda or helping to fund some of its atrocities. But intelligence sources say that some of them may have been planning to fly out to Iraq as suicide bombers. Some are regarded as so dangerous that police and Home Office officials are seeking their immediate deportation. In the meantime they are being held at police stations across Greater Manchester.
Intelligence sources suggested last night that some of those under arrest may have helped to recruit and train terrorists. They regarded the operation as a "pro-active strike" against people suspected of encouraging terrorism. Some of the intelligence is believed to have surfaced last June when police raided the Manchester home of a suicide bomber who had blown himself up in an attack four months earlier.
The man, a 41-year-old French national of north African origin, was the first person to travel from Britain to attack coalition troops in Iraq. He had spoken to friends at a mosque in the city of his desire to fight jihad, or holy war, in the Middle East. In this case, intelligence was supplied by the Iraqi security services. The bomber was unknown to MI5 but fits the profile of the "jihadists" who went to fight for the greater Muslim cause in Bosnia, Chechnya and or Afghanistan.
Security sources suspect there is a European network that supplies fighters and suicide bombers to Iraq, though just a "trickle" set out from Britain. |