Al Qaeda: New London swoop

A London man is being questioned by detectives today as police widen the hunt for members of a suspected al Qaeda network in Britain.

The man was arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 at an undisclosed address in north-west London and taken to Leicester, where 12 other men are being held following a number of raids in the city yesterday.

Ten of the 13 face terrorism charges; three are being questioned about alleged immigration offences. Two men were remanded in custody in Leicester yesterday on terrorism and al Qaeda charges.

The arrests come amid new fears of terrorist attacks following the disclosure that five more Osama bin Laden terrorists are at large. American and British security services are on alert after US attorney general John Ashcroft warned that the five may have been ?trained and prepared? to commit further atrocities. One had close links with a terrorist suspect in a London al Qaeda cell.

Film of the five men was found on videos buried in the rubble of a building in Afghanistan believed to have been used by Mohammed Atef, who directed Bin Laden?s terrorist operations.

Atef is thought to have been killed during a US bombing raid, but the fate and whereabouts of the five suicide volunteers is not known. Four were named as Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Abd al-Rahim, Khalid ibn Mohammed al-Juhani and Mohammed Said Ali Hassan. The fifth was not identified.

Al-Shibh is known to have been an associate of Mohammed Atta, ringleader of the 11 September hijack gang. Al-Shibh provided the gang with money and has been linked with Zacarias Moussaoui, the socalled 20th hijacker, now in US custody.

Moussaoui lived in London for nine years when it is thought he was in the al Qaeda group run by Djamal Beghal, Bin Laden's UK recruiting officer.

Among others recruited by Beghal was shoe bomber Richard Reid. Beghal moved from London to Leicester where he allegedly formed another group before his arrest last July in Dubai.

The two men remanded in court were named as Baghdad Meziane, 37, and Brahim Benmerzouga, 30.

Benmerzouga has been charged with membership of al Qaeda, four charges relating to the financing of terrorism, possession of an article for terrorism and possessing racially inflammatory material for distribution.

Meziane has been charged with belonging to and directing al Qaeda, inciting an act of terrorism overseas and four charges relating to financing terrorism. He is an unemployed Algerian asylum-seeker who lived in a Leicester flat when he was arrested on 26 September.

A woman at the flat, who described herself as a friend, said: "He has done nothing wrong. He is not a violent man."

Benmerzouga is also originally from Algeria. Security sources indicated the pair were involved in fundraising rather than bombing, and were not linked to the attacks on New York and Washington.

The decision to charge the men follows a five-month investigation around Europe into a plan by Bin Laden to bomb the US Embassy in Paris in 1998. The decision came just hours after a series of raids around Leicester.

Beghal, 37, has allegedly confessed to running three Bin Laden terrorist cells in Europe. He is said to have recruited Kamel Daoudi, another French Algerian arrested in Leicester in the raids which picked up Meziane and Benmerzouga. Daoudi, 23, was returned to France where he was wanted on terrorism charges.

Police refused to confirm suggestions that there could yet be another round of arrests in Leicester. Benmerzouga and Meziane were remanded in custody until next Thursday. None of the eight other men has yet been charged.

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