Special Report: Major UK air terror plot thwarted

         BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- A Muslim school in East Sussex was searched by British police on Sunday, as it was suspected as a training camp for terrorists more than seven years ago.

    Police scoured the Jameah Islamiya faith school, set in 54 acres of woodland near Tunbridge Wells, East Sussex, after arresting 14 men in London. The searches are expected to last days, according to the police.

    Although there is no suggestion that either the owner or his staff knew of any illegal activities going on, the Yemeni ambassador to London warned in January 1999, that the site was being used to train young Islamic extremists.

    The search was linked to concerns that young Muslim men were being trained to launch suicide attacks in "crowded areas" of London and possibly Manchester.

    Robin Cook, foreign secretary, said, "There have been investigations into the matter. The training provided purports to be survival training and also martial arts. We have not established that there was any breach of British law during such training."

    Meanwhile, the police said that the reports of the school grounds being used as a terrorist training camp appeared "totally unsubstantiated."    

    It is reported that Abu Hamza, former Imam at Finsbury Park mosque in London, organized training in a complex of buildings with almost 100 rooms at the school in the late 1990s. The jailed cleric now is serving seven years for inciting murder and racial hatred. But currently the school has only 12 students, aged 11 to 16.

    Describing the operation as a big success, Patrick Mercer, the shadow spokesman for homeland security said, "I hope this makes the Government realize that the whole country is now facing a threat from Islamist terrorists and not just London."

    The developments came hours after Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, said that his officers were watching thousands of Muslims suspected of being involved in terrorism. Enditem

    (Agencies)

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