LONDON, Jan 17: The British police charged on Thursday a 37-year-old Algerian man with directing the Al Qaeda network while another of his compatriot was named as an Al Qaeda member and charged with possessing an article related to terrorism.

Earlier Thursday morning, in several dawn raids in London and the nearby town of Leicester several men were arrested as part of the pan-European campaign against terrorism. The police say 11 men are being questioned. The two men — named by Leicestershire magistrate’s court as Baghdad Meziane and Brahim Benmerzouga — face a variety of terrorism-related charges.

The 37-year-old is charged with “directing” Al Qaeda, inciting an act of terrorism overseas and four counts related to the financing of terrorism.

The 30-year-old is charged with membership in Al Qaeda, possessing an article for the purposes of terrorism, possession of racially inflammatory material and charges related to financing terrorism.

Police arrested eight more men, aged between 23 and 40, under the Terrorism Act in raids in Leicester. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said residential premises in northwest London were raided at around 7.10am and a search warrant was executed.

He added that the search was connected to arrests in Leicester as part of an on-going European investigation into terrorism. In late September, three men were arrested on terrorist charges in Leicester.

Two were later released into the custody of immigration officials, while the third, Kamel Daoudi, was extradited to France in connection with an investigation on a planned terror attack on the US embassy in Paris.

Djamel Beghal, a French-Algerian, who, French investigators say, revealed the embassy bombing plot, told a French judge that he recruited terrorists for Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network through British mosques in London and Leicester.