British police, on high alert for a possible attack on the country’s airports, said on Friday most of those arrested in a major security operation were no longer terror suspects.Police arrested nine men under the country’s draconian anti-terrorism legislation in the last few days, as security forces take no risks with anyone seen acting suspiciously near British airports. Six are no longer terror suspects, police said.‘‘Everyone’s a bit on tenterhooks at the moment,’’ a police source said, adding most arrests had been precautionary.Britain’s busiest airport, London’s Heathrow, has been ringed by police and troops for the past four days amid intelligence-led fears that al Qaeda militants may target the capital.Areas under the flightpath have been combed in case of a repeat of last November’s rocket attack on an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombasa airport in Kenya.Part of one of the Heathrow terminals was evacuated — and later reopened — on Friday after what a police source said was the discovery of a suspect package. Six men arrested in West London directly under Heathrow’s flight path were released without charge on Friday. Five of them were now in the hands on immigration officials.Police said two men held on Thursday near the perimeter fence of Leeds Bradford Airport were being questioned but a police source said their arrests did not appear significant.British police have been on alert since Tuesday when they warned that al Qaeda, the network run by Osama bin Laden and blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities, might use Id as a pretext to attack. At Stansted airport police closed an approach road to the passenger terminal on Friday. A police spokesman called the move ‘‘a temporary measure and part of our routine security arrangements’’. (Reuters)
