By Prasun Sonwalkar,

London, Sep 3 (IANS) Scotland Yard officers raided what is described as Britain's "first home-grown jihad training school" in east Sussex even as reports in the US spoke of Britain emerging as a greater security threat to the US than Iraq or Iran.

After a lengthy surveillance operation by security forces, anti-terrorism officers raided the Jameah Islameah School near Crowborough in East Sussex. Scotland Yard said the raid was linked to the arrest of 14 men in London on Friday night, including 12 at a Chinese Halal restaurant.

Reports from the US say that in an article headlined "Kashmir on the Thames", the New Republic magazine painted Britain's Muslim communities as a breeding ground for violent extremism.

Citing recent opinion poll evidence suggesting that one in four British Muslims believed that last year's London Tube bombings were justified, the magazine said: "In the wake of this month's high-profile arrests, it can now be argued that the biggest threat to US security emanates not from Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan, but rather from Britain, our closest ally."

The search of the Sussex school was continuing early Sunday. Reports said that the investigation was linked to concerns that young, radicalised Muslim men were being trained to launch suicide attacks in "crowded areas" of London and possibly Manchester.

The 12 men arrested at the restaurant in London were reported to be visitors to the school.

A Home Office source was quoted in the media as saying that the school was being used to host training weekends for militant Muslim youths.

"The training was extreme and macho. It involved endurance in bad weather and bonding. In that sense it was like combat training. They were being groomed for terror," the source told News of the World, a leading tabloid.

However, the police said that the school had been "very co-operative" and that no arrests had been made following the search. The school was founded in 2003; it had only nine pupils, aged between 12 and 15, when it was inspected last December by official school inspectors.

Abu Hamza, a former Imam at Finsbury Park mosque in London, who is serving seven years for inciting murder and racial hatred, had reportedly organised training at the school.

According to the BBC, the arrests in London were linked to allegations of "training camps" within Britain for people who want to engage in terrorist acts. Last month it was revealed that some training camps had been held in the picturesque Lake District.

Meanwhile, two men have also been arrested in other anti-terror raids in Manchester but a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said these arrests were not linked to the London raids.