Three women arrested over 'active terror plot' in fresh raids linked to Willesden op

Terror raid: Police shoot at windows during the raid in Willesden
Twitter/@kieranmckenna1
Hatty Collier1 May 2017
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Three teenage women have been arrested in connection with an “active terror plot” which was foiled by police after a dramatic raid at a house in Willesden.

Scotland Yard said a 19-year-old woman and two others, both aged 18, have been arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of terrorist acts.

The teenagers were arrested at three addresses in east London on Monday morning and taken into custody at a police station outside of the capital.

A Met spokesman said the arrests were made as part of an ongoing intelligence-led operation in connection with an address on Harlesden Road which was raided by counter-terrorism officers on Thursday night.

A 21-year-old woman who was shot by armed police as they carried out the raid on the address was discharged from hospital and arrested on suspicion of terror offence, Scotland Yard said on Sunday.

Officers were also granted more time to question six other people, including a 16-year-old boy, who were detained when they stormed a terrace house and another address in Kent. Warrants have been granted to detain the suspects until May 2 and May 4.

Armed officers shot the woman and fired CS gas rounds when they stormed the terraced house in dramatic scenes.

Witnesses reported hearing screaming and shots as armed police in gas masks burst into the address.

A mother-of-one said: “We were just about to go shopping when we heard ‘bang, bang, bang, bang’. We went to the window and saw a number of armed police there with their guns pointing at our next-door neighbour’s window.”

Terror: Harlesden Road where the raid happened
Jeremy Selwyn

Four people, including a boy aged 16, were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences. The first, a 21-year-old man, was detained near the address and another woman, aged 20, and the boy were held at the house. A 43-year-old woman was arrested in Kent a short while later.

A 27-year-old man, named as Khalid Mohamed Omar Ali, who was detained in Whitehall just hours before the raid in a separate counter-terrorism operation also remains in police custody.

Armed police swooped on Ali, who was allegedly carrying a rucksack of knives in Whitehall, a stone’s throw from Downing Street and yards from the scene of last month’s deadly attack by Khalid Masood in Westminster.

Believed to be a British national born overseas who went to school in Tottenham, north London, Ali reportedly joined a humanitarian mission to Gaza in 2010.

Arres: Armed police arrested the suspect 
AFP/Getty Images

Following his dramatic arrest in front of crowds of tourists, he was taken for questioning at a south London police station.

Scotland Yard said following a warrant of further detention being granted at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Saturday; he can be questioned until May 4.

Giving an update on both counter-terror operations on Thursday, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, Senior National Co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said: "Due to the arrests made, I believe we have contained the threats that they posed.

"With the attack in Westminster on 22 March so fresh in people's minds, I would like to reassure everyone that across the country officers are working around the clock to identify those people who intend to commit acts of terror."

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