Guardian : Police feared 'Al-Qaida terror attack' on UK was planned for Easter

Police feared 'Al-Qaida terror attack' on UK was planned for Easter

• Sources say attack would have taken place by end of Easter weekend
• Gordon Brown describes suspected plot as 'very big'
• Police guard addresses raided by counterterrorism officers

Vikram Dodd and Martin Wainwright | April 9, 2009

Counterterrorism officials believe an alleged al-Qaida terror plot against the UK, designed to cause mass casualties, was due to be carried out within days, the Guardian has learned.

A total of 12 people were arrested across northern England on Wednesday as police carried out a string of raids to thwart an alleged terrorist cell with overseas links.

Peter Fahy, the chief constable of Greater Manchester police, today confirmed that 11 of those arrested were Pakistani nationals.

A secret briefing note accidentally shown to the media yesterday outside Downing Street by the UK's former top counter-terrorist officer Bob Quick, said 10 of those targeted in the operation were on student visas.

Sources with knowledge of the investigation - in which arrests were rushed forward after Quick's mistake, which today cost him his job - say the execution of an "al-Qaida driven" plot was "imminent".

UK officials say they believe the attack would have been attempted by Easter Monday at the latest.

According to counterterrorism sources, it is unclear where and what the terrorists were targeting.

Officials regularly point out that intelligence is not always conclusive, but today said they believed that the terror plot was highly ambitious and a big attack was being planned.

The source said reports of a northern nightclub or shopping centre being the target were wholly untrue.

As searches continued at addresses across northern England, the prime minister, Gordon Brown, described the suspected plot as "very big" and said investigators were examining links with Pakistan.

"We know there are links between terrorists in Britain and Pakistan, and that is an important issue for us to follow through," he said.

The 12 men were arrested at seven locations across north-west England, and at least another eight addresses in the region were searched.

Scores of students witnessed one arrest, carried out at Liverpool John Moores University. Police said one man was detained near the campus.

"When I looked, I saw a man on the floor," student Daniel Taylor said. "Police were shouting at him and one of the officers had what looked like a machine gun pointed right into his head."

Three men were arrested at Cedar Grove, Liverpool.

"I looked and, about midway down the road, there were a load of police officers dressed in black and they were bringing some men out of a house," a resident said.

Another man was arrested at a flat in Earle Road, also in Liverpool. Police stood guard outside the flat and forensics officers could be seen through net curtains.

Abdul Kassan, 20, who lives next door to the raided flat, was at work in his neighbouring off-licence yesterday when police cars screeched to a halt and officers ran into the building.

"We were working in the shop and the police cars suddenly arrived and police got out with guns," he said.

"We didn't know what was going on - they just told us to shut the shop. It was about 3.30pm. The officers came into the back of the shop.

"The blokes in the flat are new, they've only just moved in, they've all got long beards.

"They bought stuff from us and seemed normal. I think they are Pakistani.

They looked like students and only seemed to speak a little bit of English."

Police also searched a bed and breakfast in Pimlico Road, Clitheroe, today.

More than 100 officers, with a helicopter in support, surrounded the Lancashire town's new Homebase store yesterday and arrested two men working for a private security firm.

The pair were staying at the B&B but had not been there for long and were unknown to neighbours.

The house itself was sealed off and put under police guard as forensic specialists went in and out.

The pair's employer has a security contract with Homebase and they were not directly employed by the DIY chain, which only completed the Clitheroe outlet this week.

A planned opening by the town's mayor in time for the Easter weekend went ahead today and the store was full of shoppers.

The mayor, John Hill, changed his speech to focus on terrorism and community relations in the historic market town.

He said: "I would like to stress that the men arrested are not from Clitheroe.

"We work extremely well together as a community here and [in] the Ribble Valley, and people should carry on regardless of what has happened.

"There is no tension here and we would like it to remain like this."

Hill said terrorism "can happen anywhere" and urged people to "remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to the police".
Operation was moved forward after security blunder

Fahy admitted that the operation had been rushed forward as a result of the security blunder by Quick, which exposed plans for the operation to the cameras of press photographers.

However, Fahy added: "The operation would have been carried out in the subsequent 24 hours.

"It got to a point in evaluating what we knew that we had to take action yesterday."

Fahy said reports of Old Trafford or the Trafford shopping centre being the targets were "purely speculation" on the part of the media.

He added that, from what was known at the moment, there was no particular threat to specific locations and "certainly not the ones mentioned in the media".

However, he added that the threat level in the north-west remained high.