Alleged Al-Qaida Plotter Held in UK

LONDON - Police in Britain on Wednesday arrested the alleged ringleader of an al-Qaida bomb plot after the United States issued a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges.

The Metropolitan Police said 24-year-old Pakistani national Abid Naseer was detained Wednesday in northeast England at the request of the U.S. government.

He was due to appear at London's City of Westminster Magistrates Court.

The force said Naseer is wanted in the United States on charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiring to provide such support and "conspiracy to use destructive force."

Naseer was among 12 people arrested last year in raids across northern England. All were released without charge, but authorities insisted they had thwarted a major al-Qaida plot to conduct a bombing in the region.

In May a British judge labeled Naseer an al-Qaida operative, but said he could not be deported to Pakistan because of the likelihood he would be mistreated.

Authorities did not release details of the alleged 2009 plot, but said they thought the gang was plotting a "mass casualty" attack in northern England.

At the May hearing, judge John Mitting said the case rested on a series of e-mails exchanged between Naseer and an e-mail account used in Pakistan by an al-Qaida-linked terrorist. Police said the messages were a veiled discussion about explosives, but Naseer denies that.