Advertise On EU-Digest

Annual Advertising Rates

3/12/09

Dutch police arrest 7 suspected of planning attack

EU-Digest

AP-Dutch police on Thursday arrested seven people suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Amsterdam, including a relative of one of the attackers who died in the 2004 bombings in Madrid.Police received the tip Wednesday night from an unregistered cell phone in Belgium. The tip also included names of one suspect and locations for police to search. Mayor Job Cohen said police were acting on an anonymous tip that warned an Ikea outlet or other stores in the southeast of the city might be targeted. "It wasn't a regular bomb warning, but a warning of a planned action aimed at creating casualties in shops," Cohen said. "Men were planning to put explosives in the shops and wanted to cause casualties in busy places," he said. District Attorney Herman Bolhaar said six men and one woman, aged 19-64, were arrested in Amsterdam. All are Dutch nationals of Moroccan ancestry.

Police Commissioner Bernard Welten said he believed the arrests had "reduced the immediate threat" of an attack in Amsterdam, but that further arrests could not be ruled out. He said the area around the Ikea store was likely to remain sealed Friday.

No comments: