British counterterrorism officers arrested eight men, including seven Iranians, over an alleged plot to attack an unspecified target in London, the Metropolitan Police force said Sunday.

Police said the attack plot targeted a single location that was not being named “for operational reasons.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the arrests were “serious events that demonstrate the ongoing requirement to adapt our response to national security threats.

“The government continues to work with police and intelligence agencies to support all the action and security assessments that are needed to keep the country safe,” she said.

Police have not determined whether the alleged plot is connected to Iran, but Britain’s domestic intelligence service has warned of a growing threat from attackers linked to Tehran.

In October, the head of the MI5 domestic security service, Ken McCallum, said his agents and police have tackled 20 “potentially lethal” plots backed by Iran since 2022, most aimed at Iranians in the U.K. who oppose the country’s authorities.

He said at the time there was there is the risk “of an increase in, or broadening of, Iranian state aggression in the U.K.” if conflicts in the Middle East deepened.

In March 2024, Pouria Zeraati, a presenter at a Farsi-language television station critical of the Iranian government, was stabbed in the leg outside his home in London. Two men were later arrested in Romania and charged over the attack.

The U.K.’s official terror threat level stands at “substantial,” the middle of a five-point scale, meaning an attack is likely.

(AP & YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)