seruriermarshal
06-08-2004, 06:39 PM
Belgium arrests 15 in anti-terror swoop
08 Jun 2004 14:15:52 GMT
(Adds details)
BRUSSELS, June 8 (*******) - Belgian police have arrested 15 people on suspicion of planning terror attacks in coordinated raids that also spanned Italy, France and Spain, officials said on Tuesday.
Italy earlier arrested an Egyptian man considered to be a mastermind of the Madrid train bombings in the first Europe-wide raids on Islamic militants linked to the March attack in which 191 people were killed.
"We know them to be part of a terrorist group," the director of the federal police bureau of Brussels, Glenn Audenaert, told reporters.
He said 200 police were involved in the operation and that the group of those arrested included Jordanians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Moroccans.
He could not confirm any link between the detainees and the Madrid attacks, but said they were in the "early stages" of planning an attack.
He gave no details where the arrests took place or exactly what the 15 were planning.
Flemish television station VRT reported on its Web site that heavily armed and masked policemen had raided a house in the Brussels suburb of Schaerbeek early on Tuesday.
Belgian radio also reported that arrests had been made in Brussels and Antwerp.
Audenaert said the 15 had been under surveillance for some time, but police had found no guns or bomb-making equipment.
From (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08108522.htm)
08 Jun 2004 14:15:52 GMT
(Adds details)
BRUSSELS, June 8 (*******) - Belgian police have arrested 15 people on suspicion of planning terror attacks in coordinated raids that also spanned Italy, France and Spain, officials said on Tuesday.
Italy earlier arrested an Egyptian man considered to be a mastermind of the Madrid train bombings in the first Europe-wide raids on Islamic militants linked to the March attack in which 191 people were killed.
"We know them to be part of a terrorist group," the director of the federal police bureau of Brussels, Glenn Audenaert, told reporters.
He said 200 police were involved in the operation and that the group of those arrested included Jordanians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Moroccans.
He could not confirm any link between the detainees and the Madrid attacks, but said they were in the "early stages" of planning an attack.
He gave no details where the arrests took place or exactly what the 15 were planning.
Flemish television station VRT reported on its Web site that heavily armed and masked policemen had raided a house in the Brussels suburb of Schaerbeek early on Tuesday.
Belgian radio also reported that arrests had been made in Brussels and Antwerp.
Audenaert said the 15 had been under surveillance for some time, but police had found no guns or bomb-making equipment.
From (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08108522.htm)