Police in Britain have been given another week to quiz nine terrorism suspects seized in hasty raids last week following a US security alert based on a Pakistani undercover source whose name was compromised.
Magistrates today extended the deadline to question the suspects, who are being held at London's high-security Paddington Green station.
When the final extension expires next Tuesday, the men, aged from 19 to 32, must be either charged or freed.
Police initially held 13 suspects in raids across the country on Aug 3rd. Four have since been released or charged with non-terrorism offences.
Police sources have said the arrests were carried out more hastily than planned, and experts say this may be because a sting operation had to be aborted after an undercover Pakistani source was named in US newspapers.
Instead of the usual procedure of seizing suspects at home at night when they can offer less resistance, they were captured in daylight, some dragged out of shops, others held after a high-speed car chase.
Pakistani intelligence has told Reuters the source, computer technician Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan with links to al Qaeda, had been working undercover to help catch al Qaeda agents in the West before his cover was blown.
Mr Khan's name appeared in US newspapers the morning after Washington announced its alert. US officials had said a source held in secret in Pakistan had provided the data that supported their alert, and confirmed Khan's name when it appeared.
British detectives pounced on the suspects the following day.
A US intelligence official said one of those held was Abu Musa al-Hindi, also known as Abu Eissa al-Hindi, and said he was a key al-Qaeda operative in Britain.
However, British officials have yet to identify any of the suspects, charge them, or confirm whether Hindi is among them.
Police have arrested more than 600 people under terrorism laws since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. But fewer than 100 have been charged and only 15 convicted of terrorist offences.