British police arrested nine men this morning in an anti-terror sweep across London and the English Midlands. Hours before the arrest, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the U.K. should join in airstrikes on ISIS in Iraq. "These people want to kill us," he told Brian Williams last night.

According to the New York Times, the men arrested were between the ages of 22 and 51 and were likely members of the Britain-based Al Muhajiroun group. The group's former leader, Syrian-born Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad, recently pledged support for ISIS. Al Muhajiroun was officially banned in Britain in 2010.

British cops noted, however, that the arrests were "part of an ongoing investigation into Islamist-related terrorism and are not in response to any immediate public safety risk."

Cameron said yesterday that he'll recall British parliament on Friday to vote to join the airstrikes in Iraq. He seems confident he'll get the result he wants: "We must not be so frozen with fear that we don't do anything at all. We have a need to act in our own national interest to protect our people and our society. So it is right that Britain should now move to a new phase of action."

[Photo via AP]