British anti-terrorism police arrest five men

LONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) British police arrested five men in northern England under the country's security laws in two separate operations today.

Two men, aged 25 and 29, were arrested at separate locations in the city of Halifax by detectives from London's Counter-Terrorism Command and local officers, a police statement said.

''This is not about bomb-making or planting bombs,'' a police source said, adding they were suspected of being involved in logistical work.

The source said the operation was not linked to any other investigation or the attack on July 7, 2005, when four British Islamists blew themselves up on three London underground trains and a bus, killing 52 people.

Three other men held today were arrested as part of a separate operation by detectives in Manchester on suspicion of ''terrorist support and facilitation''.

''At this stage, there is no intelligence of any planned terrorist activity in the UK and the arrests are part of an ongoing investigation,'' Manchester Police said in a statement.

Anti-terrorism officers have made hundreds of arrests under security laws since the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States.

Last November, the country's domestic spy chief warned that Muslim militants were plotting at least 30 major terrorist attacks in Britain.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of the MI5 security service, said young British Muslims were being groomed to become suicide bombers and that her agents were tracking some 1,600 suspects, most of whom were British-born and linked to al Qaeda in Pakistan.

REUTERS AB BS1614