British Police Arrest 12 Men in UK Terror Plot

British police have arrested 12 men suspected  of plotting a large-scale terror attack on targets inside the United Kingdom. According to reports, the operation is in its early stages so we are unable to go into detail; however, police swept in and made the necessary arrests to ensure the public protection  The men are thought to be British nationals but with links to Bangladesh and Pakistan and between the ages of  17 to 28.

The raid was thought to be linked to UK targets only and not part of a larger threat to other European countries, security officials said.

Police who swooped in on the men’s houses early in the morning were unarmed, suggesting any planned attack was not imminent and the suspects were not believed armed. Police were heavily criticized in 2006 when they shot an unarmed suspect in a similar counterterrorism raid. Only a fraction of Britain’s police officers are armed.

The men were arrested in London, the Welsh city of Cardiff and the English cities of Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent and the raid was the largest since April 2009, when 12 men were detained over an alleged al-Qaida bomb plot in the northern city of Manchester.

UK authorities are saying this plot was not connected to rumors of Christmas Day plots by al-Qaeda across Europe and into the US; however, Hot Air has more.