Posted on 04/19/2004 2:40:46 PM PDT by pau1f0rd
Police have arrested nine men and one woman in a series of anti-terror raids.
Sky News' sources have said the arrests are linked to a suspected terror plot, possibly targeting Manchester's Trafford Centre - Britain's biggest indoor shopping centre.
The centre has 200 shops, a selection of restaurants and an 18-lane bowling alley.
Police have been advising shopping centres and sports centres around the country on security against terror attacks.
Those arrested are Iraqi Kurds and North African in origin. Seven of them, including the woman, were arrested in Greater Manchester.
The three other men were arrested in Staffordshire, the West Midlands and South Yorkshire.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "Ten people in total have been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism."
The suspects can be held for 14 days without charge or release, under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The operation involved intercepting mobile phone calls. RAF Menwith Hill - Britain's listening station - and GCHQ played a part, as well as the US national security agency.
More than 400 officers took part in the operation, co-ordinated by Greater Manchester Police.
One of the raids was carried out on a flat above Dolphins takeaway on Upper Brook Street in Manchester city centre.
A police guard is stationed outside the property and a number of items have been taken away from the premises - they do not include explosives.
The operations come less than a month after eight men were detained during a series of raids across south east England.
In those raids, 600kgs of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, which can be used in bomb making, was recovered.
So far so good, but we have to be right 100% of the time, they need us to slip just once.
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