Police quiz kidnap plot suspects

BIRMINGHAM – British detectives investigating a suspected plot to kidnap and kill a Muslim British soldier quizzed nine men and searched properties across Birmingham in central England yesterday.

Officers arrested eight suspects in dawn raids on Wednesday and held another on a motorway on “suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism” as part of a huge anti-terrorism investigation. Media reports said the suspected plot, which was nearing fruition, was to mimic the abductions and beheadings of westerners carried out by militants in Iraq and post a video of the killing on the Internet.Such a murder would echo the fate of Briton Ken Bigley, who was kidnapped and later beheaded by al Qaeda’s then leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in 2004.A defence source confirmed to Reuters the suspected target was a Muslim serving in the British military.”We are literally right at the foothills of what is a very, very major investigation for us,” said Assistant Chief Constable David Shaw of West Midlands police, adding the raids followed “many months of activity”.”Our planning has been meticulous,” he said.”We are slowly starting to pull together the pieces of the huge jigsaw in front of us in investigative terms.”Numerous home and business addresses in Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city and one of its most ethnically diverse with a large Muslim population, were being searched in minute detail.Britain has been on its second highest alert level since four Britons killed 52 people in London in July 2005 in Western Europe’s first Islamist suicide bombings.Security experts said the suspected plot was a departure from the mass-fatality attacks on transport networks and showed Britain was on the frontline of al Qaeda-style attacks.”It certainly seems to confirm Britain is particularly vulnerable to al Qaeda-style attacks because of the historic links to Pakistan and the Pakistani community here,” said Shane Brighton, a terrorism expert at London think-tank Chatham House.Nampa-ReutersMedia reports said the suspected plot, which was nearing fruition, was to mimic the abductions and beheadings of westerners carried out by militants in Iraq and post a video of the killing on the Internet.Such a murder would echo the fate of Briton Ken Bigley, who was kidnapped and later beheaded by al Qaeda’s then leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in 2004.A defence source confirmed to Reuters the suspected target was a Muslim serving in the British military.”We are literally right at the foothills of what is a very, very major investigation for us,” said Assistant Chief Constable David Shaw of West Midlands police, adding the raids followed “many months of activity”.”Our planning has been meticulous,” he said.”We are slowly starting to pull together the pieces of the huge jigsaw in front of us in investigative terms.”Numerous home and business addresses in Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city and one of its most ethnically diverse with a large Muslim population, were being searched in minute detail.Britain has been on its second highest alert level since four Britons killed 52 people in London in July 2005 in Western Europe’s first Islamist suicide bombings.Security experts said the suspected plot was a departure from the mass-fatality attacks on transport networks and showed Britain was on the frontline of al Qaeda-style attacks.”It certainly seems to confirm Britain is particularly vulnerable to al Qaeda-style attacks because of the historic links to Pakistan and the Pakistani community here,” said Shane Brighton, a terrorism expert at London think-tank Chatham House.Nampa-Reuters