Police are investigating claims that one of the terrorist suspects held over the alleged plot to execute a British soldier recently threatened to kill a Muslim serviceman after a public fight.
During the skirmish in a Birmingham snooker hall the suspect is reported to have described the young soldier as a traitor, adding that “he should have his head chopped off”.
Material recovered from properties searched by police after raids in the West Midlands is understood to include extremist literature that condemns British Muslims joining the Army to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Detectives are also checking computer files that are said to contain images of western hostages being executed by al-Qaeda sympathisers. Extremist Islamic websites have increasingly condemned British Muslims who enlist in the military as “collaborators” who should be “punished for fighting their Muslim brothers.”
Last night police began to question the nine men for the first time since they were arrested in predawn raids on Wednesday. They are all being held at a top security police station in Coventry.
Senior officers say that they wanted to check the material recovered from homes and businesses before putting specific allegations to the suspects.
Police decided to make the arrests after a month of surveillance in Operation Gamble when one of the suspects bought a camcorder that officers believe was to film their hostage. The man’s family claim he bought the camcorder for a family wedding this weekend.
Police revealed that they had been given warrants yesterday to check three more properties in the West Midlands linked to some of the suspects.
Assistant Chief Constable David Shaw, of West Midlands Police, said yesterday that “a significant quantity” of material had been seized from 18 properties being searched in the Birmingham area.
“Far better that we use a measured, calculated, meticulous response than rush into things,” Mr Shaw said.
Police are asking the Pakistan intelligence agencies for help in identifying the al-Qeada linked terrorist who reportedly groomed a number of the suspects. British security sources revealed that they contacted the Pakistani authorities asking for their help four days before the raids and arrests.
Four of the detainees are reported to have visited Islamic extremists at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. This is where the plot to kidnap and then film the torture and execution of a Muslim soldier is thought to have been contrived.
Two of the men are understood to have young children at their homes in Britain.
Another of the accused is said to have been brought up on the same road in Birmingham as Corporal Jabron Hashmi, 24, the first British Muslim soldier to be killed in Afghanistan last year. He was described as a "traitor" on a website run by the UK based al-Ghurabaa sect which is banned in Britain.
This is not the first time a British serviceman has been a target for extremists. Last year a London street vendor was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in a plot to kill a decorated British soldier.
The Ministry of Defence is trying to agree new arrangements to protect the identities of serving Muslim personnel.
Traditionally the MoD encourages local newspapers to report the exploits of troops from their region.
Last night MoD officials refused to confirm reports that two of its Muslim soldiers, identified by police as among the prime targets to be kidnapped, are under guard with their families at an army camp.
Senior British officials, led by William Nye, the UK Director of Counter Terrorism and Intelligence, have been in Islama-bad discussing new moves to combat terror networks.
The US authorities, who have been briefed about the kidnap plot in the West Midlands, have expressed their concerns about the “human pipeline” that arranges for young British militants to travel to Pakistan for training at terrorist camps.
Officials in Washington recently claimed to have identified another group of nine young Britons being schooled at one camp on the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan whom they dubbed “the English brothers”.
Leaders of Britain’s Asian police officers have asked the Government to assess the risk to Muslim officers (Stewart Tendler writes). Sikh and Hindu officers also fear that they could be seized because extremists might not know their religious background. Keith Jarrett, chairman of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), said yesterday that he had written to Tony Mc-Nulty, the Police Minister at the Home Office, asking for a risk assessment.
Mr Jarrett said that concerned officers from Warwickshire police had sent a delegation to the NBPA headquarters asking for action. In London Muslim officers have already asked Scotland Yard to carry out a risk assessment and some Muslim officers have reported threats from Islamic extremists.
Scotland Yard said that senior officers met leaders of staff associations yesterday and assured them that, so far, there had been no specific threat as a result of the Birmingham operation.
Asians represent the largest ethnic group among full-time police. They make up 38 per cent, or about 2,000, of officers from ethnic minorities in England and Wales.
1,600
Number of people under surveillance by M15 in terror investigations
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