Seven Iranian citizens are among the eight men arrested in two main anti -terrorist investigations that took place separately on Saturday.
Five of the judges were part of an investigation “previously planned” in an alleged plot to “point to a specific premises,” said the Metropolitan Police.
The dramatic image tasks in Rochdale showed a man retired from one house by armed officers, while another was filmed was dragged by Swindon street with plastic bags placed around his arms.
As part of a separate investigation directed by the command against terrorism of MET (CTC), responsible for the main investigations of counterparters and espionage, three other Iranian men arrested in London on Saturday.
The Secretary of the Interior, Yvette Cooper, said the operations, worked by hundreds of police and personnel officers, were among the “greater threat and terrorism operations” in recent years.
CDR Dominic Murphy, the head of CTCS, emphasized that they were not treating the two investigations in “separate incidents” as linked.
He said the operations were “certainly significant and it is unusual for us to carry out this scale of activity.”
Four of the five men arrested in places in England, two of 29 years, one 40 years old and another 46, are Iranian citizens. The police said that the fifth nationality and age were still being established.
The men were arrested in Swindon, West London, Stockport, Rochdale and Manchester, and remain in police custody.
In a video captured by a resident, officers can see an explosive to enter a property. In another, officers who transport firearms and helmets can be seen to the suspect around the side of a house.
The video captured by a public member in Swindon shows officers with balaclavas and simple clothes, who can be seen dragging a suspect, with transparent plastic bags on their arms, through a pedestrian area.
An eyewitness told the BBC that six men entered a coffee where the suspect was and sat in front of him, before asking for coffee and donuts.
When the man left, they followed him and “jumped on” he on the street “near a Café Costa,” they said.
Police said the investigation that led to England’s sentence related to a plot of itspecado to point to a “specific premise”, which did not appoint.
The “affected site” had known the leg and is being supported by the police, with aggregate.
CDR Murphy said he could not discuss details of the supposed plot to aim at the site.
Four of the men were arrested under the terrorism law. The fifth man was arrested under the Police Law and Criminal Evidence (PACE).
The five were also arrested under suspicion of preparation or an act of terrorism.
It is understood that military personnel helped in the Rockdale raid.
The investigation into the five men is being directed by the CTC of the METS, with the support of Greater Manchester Police officers and the Wiltshire Police, as well as anti -terrorist officers throughout the country.
CDR Murphy said: “Research is still in its first internships and we are exploring male lines of research to establish any potential motivation, as well as to identify if there may be a higher risk for the public linked to this medter.”
The researchers “would continue to work tirelessly,” he said, that there were “several hundred officers and personnel working on this.”
In the separate operation, with these three men, 39, 44 and 55, were arrested under section 27 of the National Security Law in separate addresses in North -West and West London, and had stopped while the searches continued.
The law covers the crimes considered a threat to national security. Section 27 grants the Police to judge someone a court order if it is reasonably susceptional to being involved in the “foreign energy threat activity.”
Cooper said that the number and nature of the trial “reflects the complexity of the types of challenges for our national security that we continue to face.”
She thanked the police and security services “for the action that have tasks to keep our country safe.”
Last year, the chief of MI5, Ken McCallum, said that since 2022, he had responded to 20 suddenly backed by Iran, who presented “potentially lethal threats to the British citizens and residents of the United Kingdom.”
Additional Vinnie O’DowD reports
