LONDON, Aug 11: Ten foreigners were detained on Thursday and face deportation from Britain on national security grounds, signalling the start of an expected crackdown on hard line Islamists in the wake of last month’s bombings in London. One of the detainees was said to be Abu Qatada, 44, a Jordanian resident in Britain for 12 years who has been described as Al Qaeda’s “ambassador” in Europe, and who has been the subject of a “control order” or house curfew.

Yasser al-Serri, head of the Islamic Observatory in London, said he could confirm that Qatada was detained at around 6am (1100 PST). He told AFP that the others detained included seven Algerians and a Jordanian. The origin of the 10th detainee was not known.

In a statement, Home Secretary Charles Clarke said: “According to my power to deport individuals whose presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good for reasons of national security, the Immigration Service has today detained 10 foreign nationals whom I believe pose a threat to national security.”

“They will be held in secure prison service accommodation and I shall not disclose their names.”

A Home Office official told AFP that detainees reserve the right to appeal any deportation order. London’s Metropolitan Police told AFP its officers had assisted in an Immigration Service operation to detain individuals under the Immigration Act, but did not themselves carry out any arrests.

Other detentions were carried out in central England, in Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, and the West Midlands, the region that includes Britain’s second city of Birmingham. Thursday’s detentions came a day after the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Jordan, which was said to guarantee that deportees would not be mistreated there after their forced return from Britain.—AFP