Three al-Qaeda suspects arrested in Norway over bomb plot

From The Telegraph

Officials believe they were planning attacks with portable but powerful bombs like the ones at the heart of last year’s thwarted suicide attack in the New York City subway. The three men had been under surveillance for a year.

Officials said the group had been attempting to make peroxide bombs, but that it was not clear whether the men had selected a target.

The Norway plot was allegedly organised by Salah al-Somali, al-Qaeda’s former chief of external operations, the man in charge of plotting attacks worldwide. He was killed by a CIA drone last year.

“Norwegian (police) have today arrested three people…for planning a terrorist strike,” Janne Kristiansen, head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), told a news conference.

“We believe this group has had links to people abroad who can be linked to al-Qaeda, and to people who are involved in investigations in other countries, among others the United States and Britain,” she said.

Two people had been arrested in Norway, near Oslo, while one had been apprehended in Germany with assistance from German police, she said.

On Wednesday, US prosecutors charged five men in New York over a plot to bomb the city’s underground system. The plot, foiled in September, also involved peroxide bombs.

Eric Holder, the US attorney general, has called that one of the most serious terrorist plots since 9/11.

Also on Wednesday, prosecutors revealed the existence of a related plot in Manchester.

Comments are closed.