Eight arrests as police move against groups financing terrorism in Iraq

EIGHT people were being held last night after a series of anti-terrorism raids across the UK aimed at halting the flow of money to insurgents in Iraq.

More than 500 police officers and the Immigration Service were involved in early morning raids at 18 different addresses in Manchester, Merseyside, Middlesbrough, the West Midlands and the London area.

The target of the operation is understood to have been an organisation calling itself the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), whose assets were frozen by the United States shortly after the attacks of 11 September, 2001.

At least one of those picked up in the raids was linked to the Sanabel Relief Agency, which claims to support Muslims in poor parts of the world but which is accused by the US of supporting jihadist activities. Its Birmingham offices were among the premises raided yesterday.

Earlier this year, the US Treasury alleged that Sanabel was a front for the LIFG, which is allegedly linked to al-Qaeda. The charity and at least one of those arrested yesterday had their assets frozen by the United Nations in February.

Last month the annual report of the US State Department noted that Libya began working last year with Britain to curtail terrorism by the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

But Professor Paul Wilkinson, an expert on terrorism, said it was unlikely that the thawing of relations with Libya had influenced the arrests. He said the Foreign Office still treated Libya with a degree of distrust and it was more likely that it was the group's links with al-Qaeda which had alerted the British authorities.

Only three of those arrested were held under the Terrorism Act, with the other five held under the Home Secretary's powers to deport individuals whose presence is "not conducive to the public good for reasons of national security".

The raids were led by MI5 and Greater Manchester Police, whose chief constable, Michael Todd, said the long-running investigation was into alleged terrorist activity overseas, including the funding of terrorism. "That could include funding, providing support and encouragement to terrorists," he said.

"This is an intelligence-led operation. We have been gathering intelligence, together with our security service colleagues, for at least a year, looking at the funding and support of terrorist activities overseas."

The Home Office added: "The Immigration Act 1971 gives powers to deport individuals, and to detain them pending deportation - the immigration service has detained the five foreign nationals on this basis."

Sources suggested the raids were linked to terrorist activity in Iraq, where groups attacking coalition and Iraqi targets have been using increasingly expensive and sophisticated weaponry.

The operation was not connected with Northern Irish terrorism and the arrests were not linked to either the 7 July London bombings or the alleged 21 July attempted bomb attacks in the capital.

In February the UK Treasury said it had frozen the assets of what it described as "UK-based supports of the al-Qaeda affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group". It said is was believed that the group "used a complex structure of companies and a charity to provide funds and documents to insurgents in Afghanistan and elsewhere".

One of the men arrested in yesterday's raids was Taher Nasuf, 44, who works for the Sanabel Relief Agency, which has an office on Stockport Road in Manchester. Nasuf denied he was a member of the LIFG when the initial allegations were made by the US and claimed that he had been framed by the Libyan authorities for opposing that regime.