LONDON — British police arrested 12 men Monday in early-morning raids that they called necessary to head off a potential terrorist attack.
John Yates, the assistant commissioner of Scotland Yard, declined to give details of any alleged plot but said the men were all detained “on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism” in Britain.
It was the largest such sweep in the country since April 2009, when authorities across northern England arrested a dozen men for alleged involvement in what officials called a “very big” and imminent terrorist attack. All 12 suspects were released two weeks later for lack of evidence, an embarrassing turn for law enforcement.
Yates said Monday that the new sweep was based on actionable intelligence. “With the information we had, I believe today’s arrests were absolutely necessary in order to keep the public safe,” he said.
The suspects, who range in age from 17 to 28, were, with one exception, arrested about 5 a.m. at or near their homes in London, in the northern English city of Stoke-on-Trent and in Cardiff, Wales. One man was arrested away from home in Birmingham, in central England.
The predawn swoop involved the cooperation of at least four law enforcement agencies and a commitment of “significant resources,” Yates said.
The officers were unarmed during the raids, suggesting that any plot by the suspects was not in the advanced stages.
British news outlets said several of the men were from Bangladesh. The others were British, which is likely to stoke the debate in Britain over the ongoing dangers of “homegrown” terrorism. Britain has agonized about the issue since 2005, when suicide attackers who bombed the London public transport system, killing 52 people, turned out to be native-born Britons.
Citing unnamed intelligence sources, British media reports also said the 12 men arrested Monday didn’t appear connected to a suicide bombing Dec. 11 in Stockholm, Sweden. That attack killed only the suspected bomber, a native-born Iraqi who maintained a home in the city of Luton, outside London.
Investigators declined to say whether the alleged plot in Britain was related to a statement by an Iraqi official last week that al-Qaeda was planning attacks on the U.S. and Europe during the Christmas season.
