No charges for nine more held in raids

LONDON (Reuters) - Police said Tuesday they would bring no charges against nine more of the 12 men arrested in connection with a suspected al Qaeda plot, leaving only two still under investigation.

Eleven Pakistanis and one Briton were detained in police raids in northwest England two weeks ago, as part of an operation against what Prime Minister Gordon Brown called at the time a "very big terrorist plot."

The raids had to be hurriedly launched ahead of schedule after a blunder by top counter-terrorism officer Bob Quick.

A document on the operation was photographed as Quick carried it into Brown's 10 Downing Street offices to brief him, putting it in the public domain and threatening the secrecy of the police raids. Quick resigned a day later.

Two of the 12 arrested, aged between 22 and 38, remain in police custody.

The nine will be handed over to border officials who will attempt to deport them on national security grounds, police in Manchester said in a statement. One has already been handed over to the UK Border Agency.

Media reports at the time of the arrests said police believed a large attack in Britain was in its final stages. An unnamed source close to the investigation was quoted by the BBC as saying it was a "very, very big attack."

The Home Office said it would try to deport the men.

"We are seeking to remove these individuals on grounds of national security," it said in a statement. "Where a foreign national poses a threat to this country, we will seek to exclude or to deport."