Sweden, Norway arrest 6 in terror raids

By MALIN RISING

 

Swedish and Norwegian authorities cracked down on terror financing on Thursday, arresting six people in what Swedish investigators said were coordinated raids in Stockholm and Oslo.

 

Three men arrested early Thursday in the Swedish capital were suspected of funneling money to terror organizations in Somalia, Prosecutor Ronnie Jakobsson told The Associated Press.

 

The men - all Swedish citizens - also faced suspicions of preparing terrorist acts, which Jakobsson said "could consist of financially promoting a terror crime."

 

Just minutes before the Swedish operation was announced, Norway's police intelligence agency PST said it had arrested three people in separate locations in Oslo on suspicion of financing terror.

 

It did not reveal their nationalities. Newspaper VG reported on its Web site that they were Somali immigrants, but did not cite its sources.

 

One or more of those suspects would face a detention hearing in court, PST said, adding it would not release any other details before the hearing.

 

Norwegian media reported police seized computer equipment in raids of Internet cafes in Oslo later Thursday, but it was not immediately clear whether the operations were linked to the arrests.

 

Sweden's SAPO security police said the arrests in Norway and Sweden were linked, but would not give details.

 

Jakobsson said one of the Swedish suspects was a 42-year-old man, at whose home police in an earlier raid had found a map of the area where Swedish artist Lars Vilks lives. Vilks has faced death threats from al-Qaida in Iraq for making a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog.

 

However, Jakobsson said Thursday's investigation was not linked to Vilks, who was placed under police protection last year.

 

Both Norway and Sweden have been spared violent terror acts, but authorities in both countries have voiced concern about terrorists or terror financiers operating out of Scandinavia.

 

In its annual report earlier this month, PST said violence by Islamic extremists will pose a significant challenge to Norwegian security in coming years, partly because of the Nordic nation's participation in NATO-led peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan.

 

Norway closed its embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Feb. 10 after being alerted to a terrorism plot. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kristin Melsom said the embassy reopened Wednesday.

 

The threat followed a Jan. 15 attack by militants on a Kabul hotel in which a reporter for the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet was killed. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was also there, but later said he did not think he was the target.

 

Source: AP, February 28, 2008