According to the Associated Press, British antiterrorism authorities arrested 10 men?all believed by British Association news agency to be Libyans?in 18 raids in Manchester, Birmingham, Bolton, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Merseyside, West Midlands, and London on May 24. The 500-man raid included Greater Manchester Police’s Anti-Terrorist Unit, MI5, Immigration Services, Home Office, and other police forces. None of those involved offered details to those arrested or the reason for the raids. Two of the men were subsequently released without charge; five are being held under the Immigration Act of 1971 and risk deportation; and three are being held under the Terrorism Act.
Authorities raided, among others, the offices of the Sanabel Relief Agency Limited (SRA), a charity organization dedicated “to relieve the suffering of the Muslims around the world. To bring a quality standard of life to destitute parts of the world. To build Mosque’s in Africa, Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia.” (site). The US Department of State contends that SRA is a front organization, used for financial gains for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) (see this WAR Report). According to The New Criminologist Online, the men are suspected of having raised funds for operations in Iraq (source). The New Zealand Scoop also claimed that men “were planning terrorist attacks?inside Iraq” (source). Even more out of step with mainstream media, the Daily Mail reported that: “A group of asylum seekers who sought sanctuary from Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya [Country Profile] were yesterday arrested over claims they helped British-based suicide bombers attack coalition forces in Iraq” (source). While this is possible, both sources are of questionable reliability. Conversely, the Washington Post’s Kevin Sullivan posited that the Home Office had released “more than 1,000 foreign nationals, many of them violent criminals;” the raid might have been an effort to recapture some of them.
The BBC contended that the 10 were members of the LIFG, which the US announced earlier this year has ties to the al-Qaeda network and has intentions of overthrowing Libyan leader Momamar Qaddafi. Qaddafi has begun working with both the UK and the US to curtail terrorism . GMP Chief Constable Michael Todd also noted that the raid had been the culmination of over a year’s work against the LIFG and, as such, likely has very little to do with Libya’s newly normalized international relations. The US Department of Treasury had frozen assets of the group shortly after 9/11 and of SRA for their ties to LIFG in February 2006 (source), and the UK followed suit. One of the men arrested, Taher Nasuf, was known to the US as a mid-level member of the LIFG, although, according to the Washington Post, Nasuf has denied any wrongdoing. Similarly, Mohammed Benhammedi, arrested in February on immigration charges, was also linked to SRA. The United Nations froze assets of the five named individuals and various organizations.
Importantly, Constable Todd noted that at no time was there a plot against or a threat to the United Kingdom. The LIFG has no links to the indigenous IRA or any of its splinter groups, nor is it linked to the July 7 attacks in London . This operation was solely focused on “alleged overseas activity” and “the facilitation of terrorism overseas.” This could be generic euphemisms for plotting and/or jihad; it remains unclear. The raids in the UK, though, should have very little impact to counterterrorism efforts in Iraq (see this WAR Report), Libya, or elsewhere.