Police and MI5 have foiled a suspected plot by Iranian terrorists to carry out a major attack in Britain.
In a significant operation to combat the increasing presence of the hostile state in the UK, counter-terror officers and Special Forces conducted raids on two suspected Iranian cells.
Sources said the alleged plot to target a UK premises was a ‘major attack’ that could have led to an imminent threat to life.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper stated that the arrests made on Saturday were part of one of the largest counter-state threat and counter-terrorism operations witnessed in recent years.
Cooper highlighted the importance of the ongoing investigations, emphasizing the involvement of Iranian nationals in both cases. She noted the complexity of the national security challenges that the UK is confronting.
The arrests came just days ahead of commemorative events in London to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, although sources stressed that they were not the intended target.
Police were last night questioning four men ‘on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act’ after co-ordinated raids on addresses in west London, Rochdale, Swindon, Manchester and Stockport on Saturday evening.
Hours earlier, counter-terrorism police had disrupted an alleged Iranian spy cell in London in a separate operation, arresting three men suspected of carrying out espionage activity for Iran. It was feared that news of police thwarting a suspected Iranian terror cell could spook others suspected of working for the enemy state in the UK.
The suspected plot was hours away from taking place, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Sir Ken McCallum, head of MI5, recently warned that Iran was plotting attacks at ‘an unprecedented pace and scale’, and said there was a risk that Iranian state aggression could ‘broaden’ due to conflict in the Middle East.
The dual counter-terrorism operations will send a powerful message to Iran, which is said to have backed 20 plots posing a potentially lethal threat to journalists and dissidents living in Britain since January 2022.
In the past year, MI5 investigations into hostile-state threats have risen by almost 50 per cent following a surge in assassination, kidnap, arson and sabotage plots.
In October, Sir Ken warned: ‘We’ve seen plot after plot here.’ Iran uses criminal proxies, from international drug traffickers to ‘low-level crooks’, to carry out its ‘dirty work’ in the UK, he added.
Warning those who collaborate with hostile states, the spymaster said: ‘If you take money from Iran, Russia or any other state to carry out illegal acts in the UK you will bring the full weight of the national security apparatus down on you. It’s a choice you’ll regret.’
Yesterday, residents described how around 30 armed police supported by Special Forces burst into a terraced property in Rochdale on Saturday at around 7pm.
Neighbours captured the moment on camera as a 40-year-old Iranian was dragged outside in just his underpants.
Neighbour Amy Openshaw said: ‘The children were out in the garden and they came running in saying there’s men with helmets, masks and guns outside.
‘I heard a massive bang – either a flash bang or them blowing the door off.
‘I heard lots of screaming. Then the guy got taken out with hardly anything on. I could hear them saying, “Get on that floor”.
‘They had him on his knees.’
She said the suspect – who is said to have been staying in a house owned by a couple who live overseas– had rarely been seen before, adding: ‘He was quite quiet. I never saw any lights on or much activity going on.’
Lois, another resident, said: ‘There was a massive explosion and flame. It was officers using explosives to blow open the door.’
Elsewhere, police arrested three other Iranians – a 29-year-old was held in Swindon town centre, a 46-year-old was arrested in west London and a 29-year-old was held in Stockport on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act, contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.
A fifth man, held in Cheadle Hulme, Manchester, whose nationality was not known last night, was detained under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter-Terrorism Command, said: ‘This is a fast-moving investigation… still in its early stages.’
The earlier arrests in north-west and west London of three alleged spies aged 39, 44, and 55 was the first time Iranian suspects have been held in the UK under a new espionage law, the National Security Act, designed to target those working secretly in the UK for hostile states.
Those raids are said to be separate to the alleged terror plot against a specific premises, which is not being named for ‘operational reasons’.
The threat from Iran: a ruthless regime suspected of orchestrating terror attacks on UK soil
By Andy Jehring
Iran has become a growing menace on the streets of Britain, with its agents suspected of orchestrating a spate of attacks on UK soil.
MI5 chief Ken McCallum disclosed last October that his operatives have tackled 20 ‘potentially lethal’ plots backed by Tehran since 2022 – mostly aimed at dissidents opposing the regime.
Iranians Navid Bavi and Bahar Mahroo were attacked outside the Dewan Al-Kafeel community centre in Wembley, north-west London, in May last year.
They were protesting a memorial service for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi when masked thugs emerged from the building and assaulted them. Bavi was left partially paralysed while Mahroo reported being sexually assaulted. They had to be protected by police in hospital.
Just a few months earlier, Iranian-British journalist Pouria Zeraati had been stabbed outside his home in Wimbledon, south-west London, on March 29.
He was walking to his car to head to work at Iran International’s London studio when a man approached him asking for change. He said he had none when a second appeared and together they grabbed him. The first man stabbed him in the leg but he managed to flee.
Scotland Yard’s counter-terror unit were called in, given the Persian-language station is constantly threatened for its criticism of the regime in Tehran.
Zeraati had previously reported on threats against employees, including family members in Iran being questioned to pressure journalists.
Romanian nationals Nandito Badea, 19, and George Stana, 23, were arrested in their home country in December over the attack. Extradition proceedings are under way.
Chechen-born Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev was jailed for spying on Iran International’s headquarters in Chiswick, west London, in February 2023. The Austrian citizen was convicted of attempting to collect information likely to be useful for terrorism.
Dovtaev, 32, flew into Gatwick from Vienna and took a cab to the TV channel’s base, where he was spotted by security guards who alerted the police. Examination of his phone suggested he was recording the security arrangements as he walked by.
His visit was said to be the most recent in a series by ‘others unknown’, who had also taken videos, beginning in the summer of 2022. Dovtaev was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.
