The housemate of a man who allegedly travelled to Iraq to carry out a suicide bomb attack has been arrested in Manchester, police said.

The 40-year-old man was arrested under the Terrorism Act after a dawn raid in the Moss Side area of the city. It is believed that another man who lived at the same address blew himself up in a suicide attack in Iraq in February.

The men, who are believed to be North African, have been described as "associates" rather than relatives. The intelligence which led to this morning's arrest is thought to have come from security forces in Iraq.

Around 30 armed police officers carried out the raid at a house on Great Southern Street at 5am and briefly sealed off the area.

"This operation involved two suspects, one who used to live at the address in Great Southern Street before he travelled to Iraq to take part in a suicide bomb attack, and the other who was still living at the address until his arrest this morning," a police spokesman said.

Greater Manchester Police said the arrest was not in relation to any threat in the UK but to "an incident overseas" .

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "Officers would like to assure the people of Greater Manchester there has been no threat to Greater Manchester and that the operation is in relation to an incident overseas."

"Since the beginning of the year, there have been a series of suicide bombings against coalition forces in Iraq. It appears that one of the suicide bombers may have travelled from the UK where he had been living."

Forensic officers wearing protective suits searched the house for evidence while other officers distributed leaflets asking for information about the man who used to live there.

Neighbour Andrew Holmes, 43, said: "What I heard first was 30 coppers or thereabouts making a lot of noise and kicking someone’s front door in next door but one. About half an hour later someone was arrested. This was about 4.30am or 5am. It was a well-planned operation, with a lot of police in the vicinity blocking off streets and so on."

Mr Holmes added: "I knew of the man but didn’t really speak to him. He kept himself to himself. I certainly didn’t know him well. I think he had lived there for about two years but I’m not sure."

This morning's raid and arrest in Manchester followed similar operations across Europe last week, which explored links between suicide bombers in Iraq and a possible recruitment network active in several European countries.

Last week's raids were the fourth such sweep since December looking for evidence of a co-ordinated operation to recruit young men to travel to Iraq and fight in the insurgency.

According to Michael Evans, Defence Editor of The Times, although there is no evidence to link this morning's arrest to those that have taken place recently across Europe, it is certainly a sign that authorities fear that illicit recruitment is active in the UK.

"Britain is clearly taking part in this recruitment network, there's no question," Evans told Times Online. "Recruiters use Arabic websites not specifically to ask for suicide bombers but for people to fight generally in the jihad."

"Once they get recruited they get shoved through this incredibly efficient system that operates through Damascus in Syria and from there they cross into Iraq."

In 2003, two British men travelled to Israel to carry out suicide attacks. One man, Asif Mohammed Hanif, killed himself and three others in a cafe in Tel Aviv. The second fled when his explosives failed to detonate.

Last Wednesday, Spanish police arrested 16 men, of whom 11 were thought to be in contact with the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda, run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, some of them had "expressed their will to become martyrs for Islam".

One of the suspects in the Madrid train bombings of March 2004 is believed to have blown himself up in Iraq in May.

A day before the Spanish arrests, three Iraqi men were arrested in Germany and are thought to be part of the network of extremists. And French intelligence recently announced that five young men from the same district of Paris had been killed in Iraq, including one in a suicide attack.

Spanish authorities believe that recruitment in Europe is directed by extremists in Syria, who take advantage of the porous border with Iraq and alleged complicity of Syrian officials to help smuggle foreign fighters into Iraq.

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