Three of the nine people arrested by British police in Birmingham under the Terrorism Act were taken on Thursday to Coventry Magistrates Court in northwest Britain.

Eight people were arrested early on Wednesday morning by police and security forces investigating an "Iraq-style" kidnap and beheading plot, while the ninth was held at 15:00 PM on the motorway, Sky news reported.

Under anti-terror laws, a person can only be held for 48 hours without charge.

West Midlands Police said earlier that the nine were held "on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000." The police would also be asking for more time to question all the nine men. The other six will appear in court later.

Although no detailed information has been given by the police under a six-month surveillance operation, Sky news reported that the nine people, believed to be Britons of Pakistani origin, were intended to post a video of a serving British Muslim soldier being tortured and killed on the Internet.

The unnamed hostage in his 20s is now under police protection, said the report.

Local police have distributed 5,000 leaflets to let residents in the community know what they are doing in the hope that people would come with more information on any suspicious acts.

British media speculated that the alleged beheaded plot could be a backlash to the Iraqi and Afghanistan policies Tony Blair and his US counterpart George W. Bush imposed. It indicated that homegrown British Muslims had started to target Muslim soldiers in the army for their participation in the war in Iraq. The move would also affect recruits among British Muslims to join the army to be deployed in Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2007)