MI5 and police believe they have foiled an alleged plan to kidnap a British Muslim soldier in the UK and behead him, showing the murder on the internet.
Eight men were arrested yesterday during a series of 4am raids in Birmingham. A ninth suspect was seized later on a motorway near the city.
The alleged plot, if proven, marks a disturbing new technique adopted from the Iraq conflict. So far, all the al-Qa'ida inspired plots uncovered in Britain have involved attempts to cause mass casualties, usually via a bomb.
But the police and MI5 believe Islamist extremists in the UK are learning from kidnap tactics used in Iraq.
In Baghdad, a number of Westerners, including Kenneth Bigley, from Liverpool, have been kidnapped by Islamist extremists, made to beg and condemn the war, before being executed. A video of Mr Bigley, 62, being beheaded was later shown on television in October 2004.
The target for the suspected Birmingham gang is thought to be a Muslim soldier in his twenties who has been serving in Afghanistan. He is said to be under armed protection after the alleged plot came to light.
Details of the new tactic are still unclear and are based largely on intelligence gathered by MI5 and police during a covert operation in the past few months. Police were yesterday searching the homes of the suspects and four businesses, including an Islamic bookshop, for evidence of the alleged conspiracy.
Security sources said the alleged plot was to carry out a "close-quarters" style abduction of a Muslim soldier. The kidnap plot was said to have been in the later stages of planning.
The victim would have been filmed and ultimately executed, sources alleged. The beheading could have been shown live on a number of extremist websites.
An anti-terrorist source said: "Any use of kidnap in Britain is a chilling new development. This plot marks a major departure in tactics."
A security source added: "Terrorists are always looking for new ways to strike terror into the population.
"With kidnappings, there is also the propaganda issue relating to it, plus the added importance to al-Qa'ida of the internet and visual imagery. There is no end of the possibilities where terrorists can try to cause terror to the public."
Iraqi insurgents have, for many years, used kidnappings and public executions to inflict terror.
In the case of Mr Bigley, he was taken hostage in Iraq by the Tawhid and Jihad militant group in September 2004 and murdered just over three weeks later, with his death captured on video.
Another kidnap victim, Margaret Hassan, who had British, Iraqi and Irish nationality, was kidnapped in October 2004 and shot a month later.
Yesterday's arrests were led by the Midlands counter terrorism unit, set up only a few months ago. David Shaw, Assistant Chief Constable of the West Midlands, described it as a "very, very major investigation" that would take "days if not weeks".
"The threat from terrorism remains very real," he said. He declined to give any details about the alleged plot but said the raids marked the "culmination of many months of activity".
"I can only stress that we are right at the foothills of what is a very, very major investigation for us," he said.
The earlier arrests were made at eight houses in the Sparkhill, Washwood Heath, Kingstanding and Edgbaston areas of Birmingham.
They were being searched by forensic officers last night. Four commercial premises have also been secured and sealed off.
One of them is an Islamic bookstore called Maktabah, in Stratford Road in the Sparkhill district.
Shabir Hussain, a Muslim community leader, said the community should co-operate with the police and remain vigilant of unusual activity in their homes.
"The community is under stress," he said. "They do not know where their children are, they do not know what they do. At the mosque we are saying 'open your eyes, look underneath your feet'."
Some of the suspects were thought to be at a high security police station in Coventry. Under new laws, police can hold them without charge for up to 28 days.
John Reid, the Home Secretary, has disclosed that the first known British-based al-Qa'ida plot was uncovered in Birmingham in 2000, a year before the attacks in New York and Washington on 11 September 2001.
It centred on the Sparkhill and Sparkbrook districts, which police believe to be one of the strongholds of militant Islamism along with east London and parts of West Yorkshire.
Moinul Abedin, 27, was jailed for 20 years after being found guilty of planning to cause an explosion. Police found a large of amount of high explosives at a premises he rented, as well as books on bomb-making.
Weapon of terrorism
Daniel Pearl, 39, a US journalist, was kidnapped in January 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan, while investigating links between al-Qa'ida and Pakistan's intelligence services. His captors e-mailed pictures of him with a gun to his head and nine days later, on 1 February 2002, he was decapitated.
Nick Berg, 26, was a US businessman seeking telecoms work in Iraq during the US-led occupation. He was abducted and beheaded on 7 May 2004. The CIA said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi personally beheaded Berg. The decapitation was filmed and footage was released on the internet.
Ken Bigley, 62, an engineer from Liverpool, was kidnapped in Baghdad in September 2004 with two Americans. All three were beheaded on 7 October 2004 after a video was released demanding the release of Iraqi women held prisoner by coalition forces.
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