Terror suspects held in dawn raids

Home Secretary David Blunkett today began a round-up of foreign nationals living in Britain under sweeping new anti-terrorism powers.

The terror suspects were held in early morning raids and are expected to be detained in prison without trial by the end of the day.

Immigration officers supported by police carried out a series of raids on suspects living in London, the West Midlands and Bedfordshire after Mr Blunkett had issued certificates authorising their detention.

Officials refused to give details of the numbers detained or who was being held, but MI5 is understood to have drawn up a list of about a dozen names several weeks ago and submitted them to the Home Secretary for approval.

One suspect who sources said would definitely be in the first batch of arrests is Abu Qatada, the west London based Palestinian, regarded as Osama Bin Laden's European "ambassador". The detainees are likely to be taken to Belmarsh maximum security prison in south-east London, where a number of terrorist suspects are awaiting extradition on criminal charges.

In a brief statement the Home Office said: "We can confirm that an immigration operation is under way in London, West Midlands and Bedfordshire and this is to detain foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorism who pose a threat to national security."

Liberty, the civil rights group, is in touch with solicitors in "about a dozen" cases. "The typical individual is somebody who is associated with the more fundamentalist Islamic organisations," a spokesman said.

The Home Office confirmed the arrests were being made in connection with the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, given Royal Assent last week, and means any foreign nationals suspected of links to international terrorism can be locked up without trial where their deportation is not possible.

Government ministers have said the powers will be used against relatively small numbers and they have suggested that 16 people arrested and released last year might be caught in the new powers.

Abu Qatada was one of nine people arrested in London in February on suspicion of committing offences under the Terrorism Act 2000, but released without charge on the advice of the Crown Prosecution Service. Qatada has had a bank account holding £180,000 - said to be a front for al Qaeda - frozen by the Treasury.

The 40-year-old, who lives in Acton, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Jordan for masterminding bomb and grenade attacks in 1994 and Spanish investigators are seeking to question him over his alleged role in the planning of the 11 September attacks. Qatada, who has indefinite permission to stay in the UK, cannot be extradited to Jordan to serve his sentence because there are no extradition links as Jordan still has the death penalty. He saw his income support and housing benefit cut off in October after he was named by the UN as a suspected associate of Bin Laden, but his benefits were restored after a fight in the High Court.

Sources confirmed that two men were also arrested in the Dunstable Road area of Luton today as part of the immigration operation.

Mark Littlewood, director of campaigns at Liberty, said: "We are in contact with the solicitors of the people who are likely to be detained and if those solicitors seek our guidance as we hope they will, we will try to get one of the people detained to take a case direct to the European Court in Strasbourg."

Before police can move against suspects, Mr Blunkett must issue a certificate authorising an arrest where he believes a person is a threat to UK national security and suspects they are involved in international terrorism. Anyone suspected of having links to a person who belongs to a terrorist group can then be detained without trial. Anyone taken into custody would be free to leave if they were prepared to quit Britain and if another country would accept them.