After all, it IS a GLOBAL jihad.

Bruce



http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=13360
Terror arrests in Bosnia, Denmark linked

Authorities in Denmark and Bosnia arrest ten people suspected of plotting 
terror attacks on Western embassies in Sarajevo and uncover a cache of 
explosives and other weapons, along with a videotape showing the suspects 
making bombs and asking God for forgiveness for the “sacrifice” they are about 
to make.

BBC By Damir Kaletovic and Anes Alic in Sarajevo for ISN Security Watch 
(02/11/05)

Authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Denmark have arrested eight teenagers 
in the last ten days, on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks on Western 
embassies in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.

ISN Security Watch intelligence and police sources in Bosnia say the eight 
suspects - all between the ages of 16 and 20 - were planning an attack on 
Western embassies in Sarajevo, most likely the US or British embassies, using 
either a car rigged with explosives or a suicide bombing.

Seven of the suspects have lived in Western Europe for the past decade, and one 
lived in Turkey. Those arrested in Bosnia included a Bosnian national with 
Swedish citizenship, a Turkish national, and an unidentified man who is 
believed to hail from an unnamed Arab country. The identities of those arrested 
in Denmark have not been released.

The arrests were made after Swedish and Turkish authorities alerted Bosnian 
authorities to the fact that a Bosnian Muslim national with Swedish citizenship 
and a Turkish national had arrived in Sarajevo and were under surveillance in 
their countries of residence for radical Islamic behavior.

Bosnian intelligence and police sources told ISN Security Watch on condition of 
anonymity that two of the men arrested in Sarajevo were Irfan Trtov and Mirsad 
Bektasevic.

The third man, known only as A.B. - who was detained for having rented out one 
of the apartments where the two stayed in Sarajevo - was released a couple of 
days later. Police said they had found no evidence that A.B. was aware of 
Trtov’s and Bektasevic’s alleged intentions.

The Bosnian Prosecutor’s Office told ISN Security Watch that Trtov and 
Bektasevic had arrived in Sarajevo from Sweden and Turkey at same time, a month 
ago, and that they had rented three apartments.

Prosecutors said the two belonged to radical Islamic groups and had expressed 
hatred towards “European Muslims” and Western “values”.

Police said they found some 30 kilograms of explosives and dozens of guns in 
raids on the three apartments on 20 October. They also said they found a 
so-called suicide vest.

According to police, the most significant piece of evidence found was a video 
tape showing the two men asking God for forgiveness for the sacrifice they were 
about to make.

“This is the message for you God in the name of our brothers from Iraq, 
Afghanistan, and Iran. We are going to revenge to the unfaithful ones,” they 
said on tape.

The two suspects also videotaped themselves making bombs, including one planted 
in a lemon and another planted in a tennis ball.

A third man, who presumably filmed the statement and the bomb-making scenes, 
has not been identified, and police said they had no information on him.
Investigators also said it was unclear where the tape was made.

“Comparing the arsenal on the tape and what we found during the raid, we see 
that some weapons are still missing,” a senior Federation police official told 
ISN Security Watch.

“We can’t say if that third person from the tape took them [the weapons] with 
him. We are missing a couple of rifles, a hand grenade, and eight nitroglycerin 
bullets, often used by suicide bombers. Five of them have been found,” he said.

The police official also said that as soon as the arrests were made, several 
Western European intelligence agencies showed urgent interest in the case, 
flying to Sarajevo to monitor the investigation.

“Based on information we collected from their mobile phones and emails, it is 
obvious that this is a very well-organized group that was active in several 
European countries,” a source from Bosnian Prosecutor’s Office told ISN 
Security Watch on condition of anonymity.

However, he said the investigation would proceed slowly, as the two suspects 
had refused to cooperate.

But the official said data from their computers and mobile phones was enough to 
lead to the arrest of six other young men in the Danish capital of Copenhagen 
only one week after the Sarajevo raids.

Investigators said most of the “Sarajevo cell’s” email and mobile phone 
communications were made to Denmark.

On 27 October, acting on a tip-off from Bosnian authorities, Danish police 
raided several locations near Copenhagen, arresting four suspects - aged 16 to 
20.

Jorn Bro, police chief in the Copenhagen suburb of Glostrup, told a news 
conference that there was evidence of “close contacts” between the four Danish 
suspects and the Swedish citizen arrested in Sarajevo.

Danish police seized some €40,000 in cash, extremist publications, address 
books, mobile telephones, and computers.

Two days later, Copenhagen police arrested a man and a woman suspected of 
belonging to a terrorist network planning a suicide attack in Europe.

The pair, who were not identified, are suspected of assisting the four young 
men arrested earlier.

ISN Security Watch’s source in the Bosnian Prosecutor’s Office said Bosnian and 
Danish police were pooling their efforts in the case, but it was still unclear 
what the target of the alleged attack was to be.

Denmark has some 500 soldiers in Iraq as part of the US-led occupation force.

At the same time as Sarajevo police were making their arrests, the Bosnian 
authorities received information about the arrival in the western city of Bihac 
of four British citizens of Afro-Asian origin who are under surveillance for 
suspected radical Islamic activities, though there are no concrete suspicions.

During the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, hundreds of radical Muslim mujahideen 
warriors arrived in Bosnia to fight against Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs. 
After the war, several hundred remained in the country, some of them having 
been accused of operating terrorist training camps in Bosnia - accusations that 
have led to no arrests or charges.

Media outlets have quoted observers as speculating that al-Qaida could recruit 
disillusioned “white Muslims” in Bosnia, who would not likely be under 
surveillance by Western intelligence agencies for terrorist operations.

However, most earlier reports of al-Qaida cells in Bosnia - home to an 
extremely moderate and often secular Muslim population - have been rejected out 
of hand by the international community, including NATO, as unfounded.


Anes Alic is ISN Security Watch’s senior correspondent in Southeastern Europe, 
based in Sarajevo. Damir Kaletovic is a Sarajevo-based reporter and co-host of 
a Federal Television’s “60 Minutes” political talk show.




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