British counter-terrorism police say they took proactive steps to foil an imminent terrorism plot targeting the Jewish community in Manchester, just hours away from Yom Kippur, and a year after the 2025 Yom Kippur synagogue attack in the same city.
Two men in their 30 were arrested under section 41 of the Terrorism Act on Sunday by specialist officers from counter-terrorism police and Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5. Police have been granted extra time to question the suspects in custody after they were transferred under armed guard to London, reports The Telegraph.
A hostel in Salford based in a substantial Victorian property and a flat in Manchester were searched as part of the arrests.
Police believe the arrests foiled an imminent plot to attack the Manchester Jewish community, and the arrests took place on Sunday afternoon just hours before the beginning of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year. The Guardian states police have not yet made an official statement on the ideology behind the planned attack, but that it is understood “far-right” extremism is considered unlikely and that Islamic extremism is being considered.
Given the alleged involvement of Iranian intelligence pushing attacks in the United Kingdom, a potential link with Tehran is also said to be under consideration.
A Counter Terrorism Policing spokesman said the arrests were the result of a “long-running proactive investigation which has led to the disruption of what we believe to be a plot to target the Jewish community in the Manchester area” and noted the concern this development would cause the Jewish community and the wider public. The officer said terror police are working with local officers in Manchester to prevent attacks.
The arrests came nearly a year after the Heaton Park Synagogue attack, on Yom Kippur, in 2025. 35-year-old Syrian Jihad al-Shamie drove a car into worshippers arriving at Synagogue and then dismounted, using a knife to stab others. Police responded quickly and opened fire, killing the knifeman as well as a member of the Jewish community with a stray bullet.
Earlier this year, police accepted they had missed opportunities to prevent the attack, given terrorist killer al-Shamie had already been arrested several times prior to the attack, and had his digital devices confiscated. If officers had taken the time to read what was on those devices, they would have discovered his attack planning, including hostile reconnaissance of a British military site.
Read the full article here