UK: A group of men arrested in London by anti-terrorist police had been under surveillance for months, including a spell when they were at an alleged terror camp in the Lake District national park in northern England.
The men were among 14 arrested on Friday as part of an investigation into an alleged network of terror training camps in Britain, which include the lakeland spot and the grounds of the Jameah Islamiyah school in East Sussex, south of London.
They are being questioned under controversial new laws which came in this year, banning the glorification of acts of terrorism, amid suspicion that among the 14 there is a mentor figure who is radicalising and training young men in preparation for terrorist acts.
The Guardian newspaper revealed last month that the security services were monitoring a group of up to 20 suspects, some with known terrorist connections, taking part in outdoor training in the Lake District and elsewhere.
Some of the 14 men arrested on Friday are understood to have been part of this group and, it is claimed, were using the vast grounds of the Jameah Islamiyah school in the village of Mark Cross, near Crowborough, for radicalisation and training activities.
The school, which stands on 54 acres and, according to the last official report, has only nine pupils, advertises in mosques around Britain, saying that its grounds can be hired for camping trips and that they offer a refuge from city life for young Muslims. It is a registered charity and charges up to £900 a week for groups.
Counter-terrorism sources indicated yesterday that it was not the activities of the school itself but what might have gone on in its grounds that was the subject of the investigation. Ahmed Muhammad Hakim, one of the school trustees, would make no comment yesterday about the raids.
It is known that Abu Hamza, the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque in north London, who is serving seven years for incitement to murder, had set up a camp in the grounds. But he was asked to leave, according to Bilal Patel, the principal. One of Hamza's associates, Abu Abdullah, was among those arrested on Friday, when his south London home was one of 17 raided.
Mr Abdullah, who acted as Abu Hamza's spokesman and now heads his organisation, Supporters of Sharia, has stated publicly that the 9/11 attacks were a "deserved punch in the nose" for America and that "Tony Blair, the army and the police" are targets. He ran the Finsbury Park mosque for a short period after Hamza's arrest but is now banned from preaching in most UK mosques.
Several of the men were arrested while dining in the Bridge to China restaurant in south London on Friday night, but the restaurant has now been handed back to its owner and is not the subject of further investigation.
A search at the Jameah school was, however, continuing yesterday, and Sussex police said that it could last for days if not weeks.