Terror police arrest four suspected of links to Syria

POLICE trying to stop people joining and funding terrorists in Syria yesterday arrested four people in dawn raids.

Anti-terrorist squad officers swooped on five properties in Yorkshire. The suspects held were a 40-year-old plumber and a 36year-old man in Sheffield and a 55-year-old Irish mother of three who has converted to Islam and a 44-year-old man.

A fifth terror suspect was arrested in London in an unrelated inquiry.

Police said two men aged 40 and 36 were arrested in Sheffield on suspicion of preparing to commit an act of terrorism – understood to be in Syria rather than an attack in the UK.

They included plumber Tariq Mahmood, 40, who lives in an end-of-terrace house in Heeley with his wife and children. Neighbours said police raided the address at 6am

‘An area notorious for its extremist links’

and took two vehicles, including his plumbing company van, for forensic analysis.

Pensioner Ernest Balderson said he knew him as ‘T’ and described him as a ‘smashing neighbour’ from a ‘lovely family’. Neighbour Kathryn Smith said Mr Mahmood was a ‘lovely man’ and a ‘great dad to his kids.’ In Batley police arrested a woman of 55 and a 44-year- old man for questioning about terrorist fundraising.

The woman is understood to be a mother-of-three and Muslim convert originally from Ireland.

She and her 44-year-old Turkish husband and children had only recently moved from nearby Savile Town, an area notorious for its extremist links and the home of the leader behind the 7/7 bombings.

Metropolitan Police raided two addresses in east London and arrested a 23-year-old man on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism in a separate operation to the Yorkshire raids.