UK anti-terror police probing 'thousands' of suspects

BRTAIN: British police are currently trying to monitor "thousands" of potential security suspects, the head of the anti-terrorism unit at London's Metropolitan Police said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday.

In an interview recorded in July, before the arrest of more than two dozen people on suspicion of an alleged plot to blow up US-bound aircraft, Peter Clarke said Britain was facing an increasing threat from homegrown extremists.

He refused to give an exact figure about how many people he said were either directly or indirectly involved in plotting atrocities on British soil but said the number ran into four figures.

"I don't want to go down the numbers game, I don't think it's helpful," he told a BBC television programme entitled "Al-Qaida - Time to Talk?"

"All I can say is that our knowledge is increasing and certainly in terms of broad description, the numbers of people who we have to be interested in are into the thousands."

He added: "That includes a whole range of people, not just terrorists, not just attackers, but people who might be tempted to support or encourage or to assist."

Clarke highlighted the potential for home-grown terrorism in Britain since the September 2001 attacks on the United States, implicitly citing the July 2005 London bombings carried out by four British Muslim suicide bombers.

"What we've learnt since 9/11 is that the threat is not something that's simply coming from overseas into the United Kingdom. What we've learnt, and what we've seen all too graphically and all too murderously, is that we have a threat which is being generated here within the United Kingdom."

BBC investigators uncovered a route for suicide bombers from Britain to Iraq by following a French Algerian jihadist who lived in the northern English city of Manchester and is thought to have died in a suicide bombing in Iraq.

Asked if there was a "pipeline" to carry young British Muslims to the strife-torn country - where 7,200 British troops are still on active duty - Clarke said: "What we do see is individuals who, with connections, managed to facilitate people's travel.

"There's probably a collection of individuals who are happy to try to organise the travel of others.

"We know who some of them are. We investigate, we carry out surveillance on a lot of people, but I'm not going to say exactly who."

In August, Home Secretary John Reid said the police and the security services were aware of about 24 "major conspiracies", with another 50 peripheral inquiries related to fundraising also being conducted.. Earlier.

British police arrested 14 people in raids in London overnight suspicion of planning acts of terrorism and began searches at a number of properties, including an Islamic school.

The suspects were detained "on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism" in what London's Metropolitan Police called a "pre-planned, intelligence-led operation" in south London.

According to the BBC, 12 of the suspects were detained at a halal Chinese restaurant, The Bridge to China Town, in the Borough area, which is popular with the local Muslim community.It is situated above a Persian restaurant, the Iran e Ma, which is also thought to have been searched.

Of the two other men, one was arrested in east London while the location of the last was not specified, the broadcaster added.

Scotland Yard was quick to point out that the arrests - which came when the restaurant was packed with diners - were not connected to either the July 7, 2005 suicide attacks in London that killed 56, including the four bombers.

Nor was it linked to a massive counter-terrorism operation on August 10 that saw more than two dozen people arrested over an alleged aircraft bomb plot and led to unprecedented security measures at airports around the world, they said.

At the same time, police in Manchester, northwest England, said two people had been arrested there under the Terrorism Act 2000 at 6:00 am (0500 GMT) Saturday and that these arrests were not connected to events in the British capital.

LONDON, Sunday, AFP