Anti-terror police make arrests in swoop on motorway

Two men, aged 33 and 42, were stopped and detained near junction 1 of the M6, just outside Rugby in Warwickshire, early yesterday, Scotland Yard said.

A total of 11 men have now been arrested under the probe, including radical preacher Anjem Choudary, who was one of nine held across London on Thursday.

In the most recent arrests, the 33-year-old was detained on suspicion of being a member of, or supporting, a banned organisation, and of encouraging terrorism, while the second man, 42, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.

Both were last night in custody at a police station in central London.

Lawyer-turned-preacher Choudary was detained shortly after firing off a series of anti-Western messages at 5am on social-networking site Twitter, including claims that the definition of terrorism is “more suitable for the US/UK policy in Muslim lands”.

Sweet shop Yummy Yummy, owned by Choudary’s brother Yadzani, in Whitechapel, east London, was one of 18 properties searched across the capital, while another address in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was also raided. Police says searches are continuing.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Choudary said he has no sympathy for Alan Henning, a volunteer aid worker who was captured in Syria by Islamic State militants.

IS threatened to behead the 47-year-old in a video released earlier this month, which showed the murder of another British man, Yorkshire-born David Haines.

Choudary, who co-founded the now-banned group al-Muhajiroun, is reported to have said: “In the Koran it is not allowed for you to feel sorry for non-Muslims. I don’t feel sorry for him.”

He has also had contact with a number of worshippers who have later gone on to be convicted of terrorism.