Again Northern Europe, apparently again Islamists: Swedish and Danish investigators have arrested a suspected terrorist group. The men were heavily armed, the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen attack - probably in revenge for the Mohammed cartoons. Copenhagen / Berlin - The alleged assassin of Copenhagen had not yet arrived in Denmark, since they already came to the attention of investigators: a gray Toyota Avensis should have hired three Swedish men with roots in the Middle East at a gas station in the Stockholm suburb of Kista on Tuesday with which they are then arrived in Denmark in order to make their accomplices.Unnoticed was not the plan. Shortly after their arrival in the Danish capital of the squad during searches of the secret service PET was apparently still detained in the early hours of Wednesday. The PET had spied the group together with colleagues from the Swedish intelligence Säpo for quite some time.
trade at the suspects it is a 44-year-old Tunisian, a 29-year-old Lebanese and a 30-year-old, whose identity was not yet known in detail, PET chief Jakob Scharf said. In the fourth suspect who had not entered from Sweden, if it were a 26-year-old asylum seeker from Iraq who live in Copenhagen.
According to the Danish news agency Ritzau was also arrested in Stockholm, a 37-year-old Swede of Tunisian origin. Apparently the group was planning an attack that would have shocked all of Europe. Their goal was, according to the investigators, the press center at the Copenhagen Town Hall Square, in which two of the biggest newspapers in Denmark have their editorial offices: the liberal "policies" and the conservative Jyllands-Posten.
" Would it come to an assassination attempt - and this will almost certainly Säpo PET and off - it could have come to a terrible blood bath in one of the most important and most symbolic places of the country. PET chief Scharf said that should have been found in men, among other things with machine guns and silencers fitted white plastic straps, as used for the shackles of wrists and ankles.
"They wanted to kill as many people as possible," said Scharf. Model could therefore have been the terror attack on a luxury hotel in Mumbai, India, were at the heavily armed men with automatic weapons fired wildly. Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 had published drawings of Mohammed, among others, the world-famous cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.
The publication had led throughout the Islamic world to the bloody protests at least 150 dead. Westergaard himself has since become a target of attacks. In solidarity with him and Jyllands-Posten and other Scandinavian newspapers had reprinted by many Muslims as blasphemous cartoons perceived.
"It is terrible for our people," According to the sniper attack in the coming days would be held. "These men can certainly be described as militant Islamists with ties to international terrorist networks," said the investigator. "Because of the seriousness of the terrorist threat is underlined, which is against Denmark and especially those individuals and institutions intended to be associated with the Muhammad cartoons." Denmark's Justice Minister Lars Barfoed described the foiled attack in an e-mail to the news agency Ritzau than the previously most serious terrorist threat in Denmark.
At the same time he urged for calm and said the incident clearly shows how well would attack the Danish terror measures. The head of the Copenhagen press center, Lars Munch, was shocked: "It is terrible for our employees and their families to see their jobs threatened again this way." He saw no reason yet to change the security arrangements of the leaf.
"We already have a very high level of safety and are in constant contact with PET." Currently, it is important to provide psychological support for those employees of the newspaper that this would need now. Were there calls to other countries? Säpo chief Anders Danielsson has a connection with the failed suicide attack on 11 December in Stockholm pedestrian zone and is unlikely, said: "A serious terrorist threat could be averted through the effective and close cooperation between PET and Säpo." It is still not entirely clear whether the alleged bombers were acting on their own initiative, or controlled by a terrorist group abroad.
However, there are reportedly relevant connections of individual prisoners will abroad. PET chief Scherf believes it is possible that the foiled plans have their origin in the United States. He said in Copenhagen, one could "not exclude" a connection between the alleged terrorists and the activities of U.S.
citizen David Headly in October 2009. Further details would not call it. Headley was arrested for assassination plots against the Jyllands-Posten in the U.S.. In the background, then moved to the Pakistani top terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri the threads. He had then asked one of his henchmen to make contact with a man in Stockholm who could help him if possible.
The called party did not agree - he was under observation by the authorities. Kashmiris middleman Headley was then the editorial offices of Jyllands-Posten already spied - on the pretext that he was a businessman who wanted to place a listing. "Jyllands-Posten is a major target for jihadist terrorists," said Swedish researcher Magnus Ranstorp Terror World Daily Buzz.
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