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Terror suspects seized in Antwerp and Brussels
Belgian police raided 20 houses in Antwerp, Brussels and Tongres on Friday and arrested a number of men suspected of links with Islamic extremist terror groups, the federal prosecutorâs office has confirmed. The men are all suspected of having links with an organisation called the Moroccan Islamic Combatantsâ Group (MICG). In a statement, the prosecutorâs office said there was "serious evidence" that north Africans linked to the MICG had received paramilitary training in camps in Afghanistan and were now living in Belgium, several of them with no official residence papers. One of the men arrested was wanted by the Moroccan authorities in connection with the May 2003 bomb attacks in Casablanca, which left 45 people dead, the statement continued. The police said they had also seized suspicious documents during the raids on Friday. They added that the men taken into custody could well have links with Khalid B, a Belgian man of Moroccan origin who was recently arrested in the Netherlands."Khalid B" is probably the guy mentioned in the first article at this link. Victor Koppe, his attorney, is also the brainiac who got Mullah Krekar of Ansar-al-Islam sprung and living the good life in Norway. Meanwhile, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt on Friday rejected claims made in the Spanish press that the 11 March terror attacks in Madrid may have been partly organised in Brussels. "No, no, certainly not! We reject these claims entirely." Spanish newspaper El Periodico made the claims on Thursday, citing Moroccan intelligence sources.But in a statement issued on Friday, Verhofstadt firmly denied the allegations. "The Spanish and Moroccan authorities have confirmed to us that this article was not correct. At present there is nothing to suggest a link between Brussels or Belgium and the 11 March attacks in Madrid," he said. "These arenât the droids youâre looking for, move along." Posted by: Seafarious 2004-03-20 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=28645 |