Publicité
British police question Muslim soldier kidnap suspect
Par
Partager cet article
British police question Muslim soldier kidnap suspect
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. “The suggestion is that there is a higher level of risk in the UK from those Pakistani-linked groups than there is elsewhere in Europe. We may well be on the forefront of this.”
Some irate residents on a street where one of the suspects was arrested said the police were targeting their community.
“It’s become a bit of joke. It’s just becoming a bit of a habit. Every other day, there’s an arrest and then they release him,” said one man who gave his name as Abdullah.
 |
PASSENGER DUTY DOUBLED
Air tax increase comes into force </B>
■ Laws doubling the amount of passenger duty people pay when taking flights from the UK have come into force. The increase was announced by Chancellor Gordon Brown last December. He said airlines should pay more for damaging the environment.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been asked to pay extra duty, despite buying tickets before the announcement. While the new tax is only payable on flights from UK airports, passengers face paying twice on internal flights. Airlines said they were not expecting major problems in collecting the higher rates of air passenger duty. Those who have not paid so far will have to do so at airportsbefore flying Despite some predictions of chaos, most airlines are – at least in public – expressing confidence that there will be few hold-ups. “The vast majority of passengers have now paid,” said an Easyjet spokeswoman. The Treasury brought in the rises after accusing the aviation industry of not meeting its environmental costs. But the move has failed to impress environmental groups, airlines or passengers. Mike Carrivick, chief executive of the airline trade body the Board of Airline Representatives, said the tax was purely a money-grabbing exercise. “At the moment Parliament has not even discussed the issue, but it has been made very clear to us that when it does it (the tax) would be made retrospective,” he said. “That places the industry in a very invidious position – it lays us open to a liability of well over £100m.” Friends of the Earth was hoping for a bigger increase, while the British Air Transport Association said the rises would do nothing to tackle emissions. British Airways has absorbed the £11m cost of the increase for those travellers who bought tickets before last December’s announcement, for travel from 1 February onwards. But other airlines are passing on the tax to their customers. All airlines, whether UK-based or not, are obliged to collect the tax for each passenger they fly out of the country. The big fear for the airlines was that some customers would turn up completely unaware they have to pay.
NO TRESSPASSING
<B>Intruder arrested at Prince Charles estate</B>
Prince Charles’ office on Wednesday confirmed the arrest of an intruder with a pitchfork on his country estate.
The Daily Mail newspaper said Charles and his wife Camilla were asleep inside the house at Highgrove estate at the time of Tuesday night’s arrest.
“It did happen, and it’s a matter for the police,” said a spokeswoman for the prince, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with royal policy.
A spokeswoman for Gloucester Police said a 55-year-old man from Bristol, western England, had been arrested for trespassing and released on bail.
“He was detained within the grounds and did not gain access to any buildings,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with force policy.
Publicité
Publicité
Les plus récents
