MAY 5th, 2025 – In a high-profile counter-terrorism operation, British authorities have arrested five men – four of them Iranian nationals – suspected of planning a major Islamic terrorist attack in the UK. The suspects were reportedly just hours away from launching an attack when British police and the Special Air Service (SAS), were deployed in raids across Swindon, west London, Stockport, Rochdale, and Manchester.
The involvement of the SAS – Britain’s most elite special forces unit – is reserved only for the most serious and urgent of national security threats, typically targeting innocent civilians as Islamic terror attacks generally do. Their deployment signals how seriously the UK viewed this operation: a credible, imminent, and potentially devastating attack. The SAS is typically called upon when there’s a risk of mass casualties, hostage-taking, or complex operations beyond the scope of conventional policing.
Authorities believe the suspects were in the final stages of their plot, with actionable intelligence prompting immediate intervention. While some media reports, including from The Times of Israel and The Sun, suggested the intended target was a synagogue, The Guardian has reported that UK investigators do not believe this was the case. The intended target remains classified, but the timing and scale of the operation underscore its seriousness.
This incident appears to be a notable departure from Iran’s usual tactic of conducting foreign operations through proxy terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthi rebels. British authorities are now investigating whether this was a rare example of direct operational involvement by Iranian nationals. One of the arrested suspects is reported to have close family ties to high-level business networks in Iran, raising questions about his connections to the regime.
In a parallel but separate operation, three more Iranian nationals were arrested under the UK’s National Security Act, which allows detention in cases involving foreign state-linked threat activity. It’s not yet clear whether these arrests are linked to the initial terror plot, but they suggest a broader and more coordinated Iranian footprint in the UK than previously known.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the counter-terrorism actions as among the most significant in recent years. MI5 and other UK agencies have thwarted several Iran-backed plots since 2022, but this operation – given the last-minute timing and the involvement of the SAS – may have prevented a large-scale loss of life.
This near-miss Islamic extremist plot, reportedly driven by mostly Iranian nationals, marks a chilling escalation in Iran-related threats on British soil. It also demonstrates the increasing willingness of Tehran or its operatives to act more directly in Western jurisdictions—raising serious concerns for UK intelligence and its allies.
