Police question terror suspects

Two of the suspects are still being questioned

A judge has given Leicestershire police extra time to question two men arrested last week under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

The police may detain the men until Tuesday, 2 October, the maximum period allowed by law.

The two men are being questioned by police about plans for an alleged suicide helicopter assault on the US embassy in Paris.

They were arrested with another man after raids on two properties in Rolleston Street and Prospect Hill, Leicester, on Tuesday 25 September.

Deported to France

The third man, believed to be 23-year-old Kamel Daoudi, was deported to France on Friday.

Leicestershire police said the man, whose identity they would not confirm, was deported under the Immigration Act.

One report said Daoudi had left Paris last week for Leicester when police in France began detaining suspects.

The three are suspected of being involved in a plot thought to be connected to an associate of Osama bin Laden.

The man, Djamel Begal, 35, an Algerian, confessed to a conspiracy to attack US interests in Europe, after he was detained getting on a plane in Dubai in July.

Terrorist cells

He told police he ran three terrorist cells in Europe belonging to the Tafkir wal Hijra (Anathema and Exile) group which is thought to do the bidding of bin Laden.

Following the arrests in Paris, two flats in the French capital were raided and documents and computer records seized.

Police who searched suspects' homes in Belgium and Holland found fake passports and plans of the US embassy in Paris.

A police spokesman said the two men who are still in custody are at an undisclosed Leicester police station.