Police arrested twelve men, ages 17 to 28, this morning in coordinated raids on suspicion of planning or instigating a terrorist attack. There has been speculation that Al Qaeda was planning a “commando-style” attack similar to the 2008 massacre in Mumbai, but police say the arrests are unrelated to the possibility of a Mumbai-type event or the suicide bomb in Sweden last week. It’s still unclear whether investigators had intelligence that an attack was imminent, or whether the proximity to the holidays, which saw a thwarted Christmas attack on a plane traveling to Detroit last year, merely heightened tension. The suspects, many of whom were of Bangladeshi and possibly Pakistani descent, were arrested according to the controversial Terrorism Act of 2000, which bestowed broader power on the police in fighting terrorism. [Guardian UK via Daily Beast]
