Eight arrested in Denmark had links to Al-Qaeda: police

COPENHAGEN (AFP) — Danish police said Tuesday they had prevented a terrorist attack with the arrest overnight of eight men believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda and suspected of possessing bomb materials.

The director general of the Danish intelligence service PET, Jakob Scharf, said the arrests near Copenhagen had “prevented a terrorist attack.”

“We would describe the main suspects as militant Islamists with international contacts, including leading members of Al-Qaeda,” Scharf told a press conference.

Scharf would not disclose any information about the possible target of the planned attack, but said there was “no direct link” to Denmark’s military involvement in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Police raided 11 homes in the early hours of Tuesday.

“We made our move now because we had gathered enough evidence to make an arrest, and because several of the suspects had created an unstable explosive in a densely populated housing area,” he said.

“During the raids overnight and this morning we found a series of objects and materials that are important in this case,” he added.

The eight, aged 19 to 28, were of foreign backgrounds from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Turkey, and six of the eight held Danish citizenship, Scharf said.

Two of the men were to be presented before a judge on Tuesday and could be placed in temporary detention.

The investigation had been underway for several months and PET had cooperated with foreign intelligence agencies, Scharf said.

“This is a serious case. A case which we have been investigating very intensively… A case which has required much of PET’s resources, a case which has had high priority for us,” he added.

This is the third time in two years Danish police have conducted operations resulting in the arrests of people suspected of preparing acts of terrorism.

In September 2006, PET arrested nine people after finding chemicals in a raid for explosives production.

Four young Muslims were indicted in the affair, accused of planning bomb attacks in Denmark or abroad. Their trial is to begin on Wednesday.

In October 2005, PET arrested a group of people accused of having helped two accomplices, a Swede of Serbian-Montenegrin orgin and a Turkish-born Dane, travel to Sarajevo to acquire explosives and weapons aimed at carrying out a terror attack in Europe.

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