Nine arrested over alleged kidnap and beheading plot. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

A ninth person has been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap and behead a member of the public live on the internet, West Midlands Police said this afternoon. The arrest, on a motorway in the Birmingham areas, follows the arrests of eight men this morning.

Police suspect the alleged plot would have involved a victim being identified and, in a chilling echo of the British engineer Ken Bigley, forced to plead for his life before being beheaded. The kidnapping could have resembled operations carried out by insurgents in Iraq, according to the sources, who allege that a young soldier with experience serving in Afghanistan had been identified as the target.

If the reports are true, this would be a major departure from previous Islamist attacks in the West, which have been characterised by co-ordinated explosions aimed at causing high numbers of casualties.

Members of the West Midlands Counter Terrorist Unit hit 12 addresses in a series of raids at 4am. They included a bookshop, an internet cafe and a grocery store. John Reid, the Home Secretary, said the arrests were a “major national operation”.

A man in his 20s, possibly the intended victim, was understood to be under police protection today.

British tabloid The Sun says the plotters intended to kidnap a British Muslim soldier: Blair blackmail terror bid foiled.

EVIL Muslim terrorists were to kidnap a British soldier on UK streets and force him to plead with Tony Blair for his life in return for a pull-out of troops from Iraq, The Sun can reveal.

The soldier would have been filmed begging the PM to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan in a sick propaganda stunt. Army sources said the target was a British Muslim soldier in his 20s.

He would eventually be beheaded on film in a sick mirror of the torture and savage killing of British hostage Ken Bigley if Mr Blair refused.