The Balkan Islamic Jihad: A Pan-European calamity

[Crvena zvezda]

Terrorist Network Still Lurks in Bosnia Mountains
September 07, 2005
BIH
Suspicions that there are currently active terrorist camps in Bosnia Herzegovina still rage on despite denials from international organisations that there is no need for alarm.

European Union peacekeeping forces have repeatedly quashed claims of terror camps which have surfaced recently through a local news agency which alleged that terrorists involved in attempts to attack the United States are now in hiding in Bosnia.

And that the camps have been caught in action training recruits to kidnap and to carry out terror missions.

This holds little ground with commentators who believe that there are sinister actions being carried out in Bosnia.

Gregory Copley, President of the International Strategy Studies Association said: “There are a number of training terror camps in Bosnia and some activity is known in Kosovo as well. Many work in conjunction with narco traffickers who operate in Albania, Kosovo Southern Serbia and through into the Gorazde corridor in Bosnia.”

He added: “Border control in Bosnia is effectively undertaken by the Republica Srpska and the Ministry of the Intrerior, in Kosovo the border with the rest of Serbia is controlled by Serbian police however this leaves the trail form Albania into Kosovo totally open.”

Legally, there is little or no process which can stop any trafficking flowering into potentially dangerous cells. There is no real judicial jurisdiction in place and there appears to be little political will to act and rectify this.

Mr Copley further explained: “The response from the major organisations has been to simply to ignore the problem and that is does not exist. If the US, EU and NATO acknowledge the problem they would be force to confront the problem and they would be forced to admit that they would be forced to admit
that they backed the terrorists in the Bosnian civil war.”

There are several groups and strands of Islamic terror in Bosnia these mainly come from the Wahhabist and Salafist beliefs within the religion.

Wahhabism was named after Mohammed Ibn Abu al Wahihab in the early eighteenth century, historically adopted by the Saudi family its dominance across the Arabian penninsula was assured in 1932 when Saudi Arabia came into being and was supported by the Saudi wealth.

The practices of this religion have become associated with modern radical Islam factions especially after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan entwined with the appearances of traditional beards and the long dress.

Salafism is the method of the early Muslims and relates to the first three generations of Muslims who were the companions of the prophet Mohammed and the two after that, the Taba’een and the taba Taba’een, they believe Islam should be taught in its purest form with all sources of Islamic law from
the Qu’ran.

An example of one of the terrorist schools is the Kvadrat which began in Sarajevo in 1995 and used orphaned children from the Bosnia civil war as the natural resource for its army.

According to information from the Defence and Foreign Affairs publication, edited by Gregory Copley, the group sends it people through the safe haven narco-traffickers from Bosnia through Turkey and Georgia to Chechnya.

The group operates between the Zenica, Tuzla and Sarajevo in Bosnia Herzgovina although receives its funding from Saudi Arabia and strategic direction from Vienna businessman who are Bosnian Muslims.

In 2004 there has been substantial evidence that the Zvadrat has opened offices in the Serbian region of Raska, opposite the Gorazde Corridor linking the Muslim areas of the two countries.

Despite the evidence the movements have not been recognised by the Office of High Representative who in keeping with other major international organisations have either refused to comment on the issue or denied the existence of terrorist activity.

So what has been the outcome of terrorist activity and how much damage has actually been caused?

Forensic and intelligence sources have repeatedly linked the 9/11 attacks, Madrid bombings and the recent attacks on London with the Bosnian nexus. Balkan government sources have been continually rebuffed when they attempted to advise the UK and US on the impending attacks.

A significant change of development occurred when Tony Blair and Labour was elected in 1997, they adopted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office softer line with the jihads in Bosnia.

This went against the more hardline approach of the UK military service which regarded the official line as soft on potential terrorists and a danger to serviceman in Bosnia as part of the peacekeeping corps.

Since this time it is believed that then US and the UK have suppressed and denied the existence of terrorist activity which has almost encouraged the build up of networks which has been responsible for all of the major attacks in all of Europe and North America.

The investigation into the Madrid bombings showed the link between terror attacks and Bosnia.

Darkr Trifunovic, deputy director of for the Centre for Security and
Investigation of Terrorism at the Belgrade Institute for Political Studies is a long time writer and critic of the way in which Islamic groups are dealt with in the Balkans.

He said: “There was an Islamic group which was set up in Spain called the Soldiers of Allah in 1994 and operated out of the Abu Baker Mosque, they organised and financed medical treatment for those fighting in Bosnia.”

Abu dahdah was considered a major figure in the Madrid bombings and was viewed as a pivotal leader by Al Qaeda and recruited major figures from Syria to be Al Qaeda trained in Camps in the Zenica area of Bosnia where an Arab battalion fought together with the Bosnian Muslims, they were in close
contact with Abu Musab a senior Al Qaeda training camp commander in Afghanistan.

Considering his huge reputation he was granted nearly 17,00 Euros for Islamic activity which was provided by the Al Qaeda, the highest figure granted to a representative of terrorism in Europe.

Dahdah’s residence in Madrid was confirmed when his phone number was found in the apartment of Mohammed Atta in Hamburg after the attacks on New York and Washington.

The Madrid attack was ordered by Abu Musa al Zagarwi and other sources of finance from Spanish police findings came from 10 organisations that were involved in bona fide activity.

They included Muslim Aid which was set up in London and the Afghan support committee that assisted Arabs expelled from Pakistan after the bombing in Islamabahad on the Egyptian Embassy in 1995, reflecting the well spread and intensely connected way in the creation of a network.

Saudi security agents killed Al Otaibi and Moroccan Abdul Karem Al Mayeti who they considered to be some of the major organisers of the attack, both had fought in Bosnia during the war under false identities.

The Spanish indictment mentioned Bosnia on 300 occasions and claimed that the indicted was a global terrorist cell that trained fighters in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Indonesia.

The fight will continue against an ever present threat, the dousing of the problem seemingly only to occur through communication at all levels and supranational political muscle.

[Crvena zvezda]

Kosovo independence to cause "escalation of international terrorism" - Serb body
March 04, 2006
YU, ME

Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet
Kosovska Mitrovica, 4 March: Representatives of the Serb National Council [SNV] for Kosovo-Metohija have concluded at a session in Kosovska Mitrovica that the independence of Kosovo-Metohija would cause an escalation of international terrorism.
The SNV sent a message to the European Union, USA and NATO that current democratic Serbia was the sole guarantor of peace in the region, adding that an independent Kosovo would turn current democratic Serbia to a radical, revisionist, vengeful and bitter nation.
An independent Kosovo, the SNV assessed, would become a base for a Jihad-oriented terrorism, a "white al-Qa'idah", as well as a source of chaos in the region which would send a message to terrorists across the world that crime and terrorism pay off.
"We received the news that [Kosovo Protection Corps commander] Agim Ceku is the candidate for the prime minister of Kosovo with astonishment," the SNV stated, asking what perspective the survival of the Serb people in the province had if Ceku's name was linked with a crematorium near Klecka village and other crimes against the Serb people.
The conclusions of the SNV session, read out by Banjska Monastery Abbot Father Simeon, gave full support to Belgrade's negotiation team [for Kosovo status talks].
Full support was also given to the stance taken by the Serbian Orthodox Church's Holy Synod dated November 2005, which Raska-Prizren Bishop Artemije recently made pressing - that an imposed solution for Kosovo would be considered an "illegitimate and unlawful occupation of a part of our national territory".

[Crvena zvezda]

Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has no information concerning AP report on Al-Qaeda members meeting in Sofia
March 23, 2002
BIH, BG
Sofia, March 23 The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has no information relating to a meeting in Sofia of Al-Qaeda members reported by The Associated Press. The Foreign Ministry has had no information either from the Bosnian authorities or from any other official sources regarding planning in Sofia of terrorists attacks on American targets in Europe, the Ministry's
Information Directorate said.
Quoting a high-ranking Bosnian official who insisted on anonymity, an AP correspondent reported from Sarajevo on Saturday that Al-Qaeda terrorists planned attacks on Americans in Sarajevo and other towns in Europe at a meeting in Sofia.
If the report proves to be trustworthy, the Foreign Ministry will check the information thoroughly. At this stage, it has asked the Bulgarian Embassy in Sarajevo to verify the AP report, the press release said.
A meeting of Al-Qaeda members in Sofia has not been dealt with by the Bulgarian services so far, Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Boiko Borissov told BTA. (Source: BTA)

[Crvena zvezda]

Sofia Denies "Al-Qaeda Links" Speculations
November 19, 2003
BG
Experts at Bulgaria's Interior Ministry have received no information about possible Al-Qaeda activity in the country, the Ministry's Chief Secretary Gen. Boyko Borissov told local bTV channel early on Wednesday.

His words came in return of an article published at Sofia-based "24 Chasa" daily claiming that Turkish special services were investigating persons allegedly involved in weapons channels through Bulgaria and Romania in a bid to track down the supplier of the bombs in Saturday's attacks that killed at least 23 people outside two Istanbul synagogues.

The newspaper cited confidential information of the Turkish consulate in Munich according to which the terrorists were planning to plant bombs in different capitals within a period of 20 days.

[Crvena zvezda]

UK Expert: Terrorists will Penetrate among Muslims in Bulgaria
November 28, 2003
BG
Terrorists will look for supporters in countries with Muslim population, including Bulgaria, a counter terrorism expert Professor Paul Wilkinson of St Andrews University told BBC.

The professor claims that the terrorists will try to penetrate into the Muslim community in Bulgaria and warned that the Bulgarian authorities must be on high alert.

Wilkinson underlined Bulgaria's geostrategic position, which makes it a likely target of Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

In his opinion the closing down of UK Embassy in Sofia on Thursday came following information about a possible attack that Foreign Office received from the intelligence.

The UK embassy in Sofia opened at noon on Thursday after it was closed down early in the morning for security reasons. The closure came about a week after the two deadly truck bomb attacks that claimed the lives of dozens of people in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.

[Crvena zvezda]

The Observer : Terror Cells Regroup - And Now Their Target is Europe
January 11, 2004
BG
Secret intelligence papers from across the continent reveal a growing danger from a widening network of fanatics - and this is a struggle the West cannot lose

By Antony Barnett, Jason Burke and Zoe Smith
The Observer

They had been watching him for months, aware that his pop star good looks concealed a secret life as one of Europe's new terrorist kingpins.

Finally, on a cold winter dawn, the police moved in. Abderrazak Mahdjoub did not resist as armed German officers surrounded his Hamburg home and led him away.

For at least a year, investigators claim, the 30-year-old Algerian had been a key part of a network of Islamic militants dedicated to recruiting and dispatching suicide bombers to the Middle East. Several volunteers had got through, wreaking havoc in a series of attacks in Iraq. Many more were on their way, along with bombers focused on targets in Europe.

Even worse, his associates were planning bombs in Western Europe. At least two European intelligence services had made previous attempts to take Mahdjoub out. Now, finally, it was the Germans' turn. This weekend, just over a month after his arrest, Mahdjoub remains in prison at an undisclosed location. He is likely to remain incarcerated for some time.

Mahdjoub's arrest was a minor victory in a major war being fought, bitterly and secretly, in cities from London to Warsaw, from Madrid to Oslo. It pits the best investigative officers in Europe against a fanatical network of men dedicated to the prosecution of jihad both in Europe and overseas. It is a war security officials know they cannot afford to lose - and that they know they will be fighting for the foreseeable future.

Previously seen as a relative backwater in the war on terror, Europe is now in the frontline. 'It's trench warfare,' said one security expert. 'We keep taking them out. They keep coming at us. And every time they are coming at us harder.'

An investigation by The Observer has revealed the extent of the new networks that Islamic militants have been able to build in Europe since 11 September - despite the massive effort against them. The militants' operations go far beyond the few individuals' activities that sparked massive security alerts over Christmas and the new year. Interviews with senior counter-intelligence officials, secret recordings of conversations between militants and classified intelligence briefings have shown that militants have been able to reconstitute, and even enlarge, their operations in Europe in the past two years. The intelligence seen by The Observer reveals that:

· Britain is still playing a central logistical role for the militants, with extremists, including the alleged mastermind of last year's bombings in Morocco, and a leader of an al-Qaeda cell, regularly using the UK as a place to hide. Other radical activists are using Britain for fundraising, massive credit card fraud, the manufacture of false documents and planning. Recruitment is also continuing. In one bugged conversation, a senior militant describes London as 'the nerve centre' and says that his group has 'Albanians, Swiss [and] British' recruits. He needs people who are 'intelligent and highly educated', he says and implies that the UK can, and does, supply them.

· Islamic terror cells are spreading eastwards into Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic for the first time, prompting fears of a new battleground in countries with weak authorities, powerful criminal gangs and endemic corruption in the years to come.

· Austria has become a central communications hub for Muslim extremists; France has become a key recruiting ground for fighters in Chechnya; and German groups, who often have extensive international links, are developing contacts with Balkan mafia gangs to acquire weapons.

The investigation has also revealed that, despite moves by the government there to crack down, Saudi Arabia remains the key source of funds for al-Qaeda and related militant groups.

Investigators stress that most of the European cells are autonomous, coming together on an ad hoc basis to complete specific tasks. To describe them as 'al-Qaeda' is simplistic. Instead, sources say, the man most of these new Islamic terror networks look to for direction is Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian Islamic militant who some analysts believe was behind the recent Istanbul suicide bombings against British targets and synagogues. Though he follows a similar agenda to Osama bin Laden, the 37-year-old Zarqawi has always maintained his independence from the Saudi-born fugitive. Last week, his developing stature in global Islamic militancy was reinforced when he issued his first-ever public statement, an audiotape calling on God to 'kill the Arab and the foreign tyrants, one after another'.

Zarqawi is believed to be in Iran or Iraq. However European investigators have discovered that one of his key lieutenants is an Iraqi Kurd known only as Fouad, a cleric based in Syria, who handles the volunteer suicide bombers sent from Europe to launch attacks in Iraq.

Italian investigators made the first breakthrough in the hunt for Zarqawi's operatives. Just after 10pm on the evening of 15 June, 2002, an unidentified Arab visitor from Germany - believed to be a senior figure in the militants' network - arrived at a mosque in the Via Quaranta, Milan. He began by warning the mosque's Egyptian imam, Abu Omar, about increased surveillance. He was unaware that Italian police were listening to his every word.

Transcripts obtained by The Observer reveal that the visitor spoke of a project needing 'intelligent and highly educated people'. Already, the visitor said, that 'where the jihad part is concerned there was a battalion of 25 to 26 units'. It is these 'units', believed by investigators to mean potential suicide bombers, that the authorities knew they had to find.

The visitor then began a review of recent developments. He stressed that 'the thread begins in Saudi Arabia', where the bulk of funds apparently still comes from. 'Don't ever worry about money, because Saudi Arabia's money is your money,' the visitor says. He then refers to recent 'confidential' meetings in Eastern Europe with Islamic militant leaders.

'Now Europe is controlled via air and land, but in Poland and Bulgaria and countries that aren't part of the European Community everything is easy,' he says. 'First of all they are corrupt, you can buy them with dollars...[Secondly] they are less-controlled countries, there aren't too many eyes.'

The man named Austria as a launch pad for attacks. 'The country from which everything takes off is Austria. There I met all of the sheikhs and all our brothers are there ... it has become the country of international communications. It has become the country of contacts.'

Poland is a particularly important location too, the man says and names a 'Sheikh Abd al-Aziz', before boasting: 'His organisation is stunning.'
After translating the conversation, held in Arabic, Italian investigators immediately relayed the information to counterparts elsewhere in Europe. The British security services swung into action. The transcripts also reveal the continuing importance of London.

'The nerve centre is still London,' the man says and hints that there are many recruits from the UK: 'We have Albanians, Swiss [and] British.'

The role of the UK was reinforced when, last April, 29-year-old Somali-born Cabdullah Ciise was arrested in Milan days after arriving from London, where he had fled to escape Italian investigators months earlier. The Italians suspect him of financing a terror cell involved in the car bomb attack on Israeli tourists in Mombasa, Kenya in November 2002. According to Italian court documents, Ciise transferred money from Great Britain to Somalia through Dubai.

He is also accused of being an important member of Zarqawi's international terrorist organisation. A year earlier, in May 2002, Faraj Farj Hassan, the suspected leader of an Islamic terrorist cell in Milan, was arrested in Harrow, west London, where he had taken refuge with a relative who had political asylum. Hassan, 23, was arrested for immigration offences and is believed to still be held in Belmarsh high security prison awaiting extradition to Italy.

And last November, an Algerian-born British national from west London was arrested after travelling to Poland. He was the subject of an Algerian arrest warrant alleging his involvement in a terrorist group.

When the Italians arrested Ciise they put him in the same cell as another Islamic radical known as 'Mera'i'. Again, the conversation was bugged; it gives a chilling insight into the mind of a hardened militant.

Mera'i tells Ciise that he hates their jailers: 'They like life, I want to be a martyr, I live for jihad. In this life there is nothing, life is afterward, the indescribable sensation of dying a martyr.'

Then the pair talk about the Syrian-based cleric Fouad, whom they describe as the 'gatekeeper' to Iraq. Other transcripts reveal conversations between Fouad and Mera'i about how they had organised the flow of 'brothers' to Iraq via the Syrian cities of Damascus and Aleppo. British suicide bombers who died in Israel last year travelled through both cities. One of the network's recruits is believed to have been involved in the rocket attack in October against the Baghdad hotel where Paul Wolfowitz, the American deputy Secretary of Defence, was staying. One phone call between the two reveals Mera'i telling Fouad that: 'This week more guests will be arriving ... they are good people.' Fouad replies: 'I want those that are awake and prepared ... I want those who will strike the earth and make iron rise out of it ... I'm looking for those that were in Japan [ie, kamikaze or suicide bombers].'

The Italian investigation yielded important intelligence and the focus shifted to Germany.
After 11 September, authorities there had concentrated on rounding up all those connected with the 'Hamburg cell' who had led the attacks on New York and Washington. Soon, however, they came across a group known as 'al-Tauhid' (the unitarians) which posed as grave a threat. Al-Tauhid were loyal to Zarqawi; indeed, many of their key personnel had trained in his camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

According to an intelligence dossier compiled last year by German criminal intelligence, the link between the Italian network and the German cells was a 30-year-old Palestinian called Mansour Thaer. Another connection was a Turk called Mevluet Tar, a 23-year-old who spoke fluent German. Both were quickly picked up.

The dossier lists a dozen senior al-Tauhid operatives in Germany. Most were involved in the provision of false passports or spent their time raising and transferring funds to fighters in the Middle East. But others, many still at large, were involved in plotting bomb attacks against Jewish targets in Western Europe. At least one militant liaised with Albanian mafia gangs in a bid to obtain weapons, the dossier reveals. Only a handful of the individuals named in the document have been arrested.

Last week there were more arrests. In Paris a group alleged to be recruiting fighters for the war in Chechnya was picked up. In Switzerland a series of raids broke up an alleged support and fundraising network which had connections to the men who set off bombs in Riyadh last May. In Spain, a favoured entry point into Europe for North African militants, investigators continue to chase down terrorists linked to cells rounded up earlier.

A Moroccan cleric called Mohammed al-Garbuzi, whom local authorities claim was a key figure in the Casablanca bombings last May, is believed to be at large in the UK. Scotland Yard last week warned leaders of the Jewish community that the threat 'remained high'. Senior British police officers said they are aware that millions of pounds are being raised in the UK by credit card fraud for Islamic militant groups.

'We act when we can,' said one police source. 'But we are stretched enough going after the clear and immediate threats, let alone their back-up.'

Security experts stress that the campaign to prevent another major bomb attack in Western Europe has got no easier since major round-ups after 11 September. 'We are dealing with something that is organic, not mechanical,' one told The Observer . 'You can't remove a part and watch it all break down. It's more like fungus. Burn some away and it just keeps growing somewhere else.'

The targets, the death toll and the suspects

Istanbul November 2003, 62 dead
Target: British consulate and bank, synagogues
Suspect: Local Islamic group thought to be linked to al-Qaeda or Abu Musab Zarqawi

Baghdad August-October 2003, 50 dead
Target: Al-Rasheed hotel, UN and Red Cross headquarters.
Suspect: European suicide bombers believed to have been recruited by Mullah Fouad in Syria.

Casablanca May 2003, 41 dead
Target: Jewish community centre and Spanish social club
Suspect: Local Islamic group. The authorities want to interview a Moroccan cleric, Mohammed al-Garbuzi, who is believed to be in Britain.

Riyadh May 2003, 34 dead
Target: Luxury compounds in Saudi capital
Suspect: Swiss arrest an eight-strong 'logistics cell'.

Mombasa November 2002, 16 dead
Target: Israeli tourists at Paradise hotel
Suspect: Kenyan Islamic cell. Some funds allegedly provided by a Somali-born militant living in London, arrested in Milan and 'a part of Zarqawi's cell'.

[Crvena zvezda]

Bulgaria Denies Claim of Al-Qaeda No. 2 Visit
March 21, 2004
BG
Sofia refuted media claims that Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has visited Bulgaria.

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry has no information about a visit of Ayman al-Zawahiri to Bulgaria, the ministry spokesman Lyubomir Todorov said on Saturday.

He reacted to Birmingham Post-Herald reports that Ayman al-Zawahiri travelled to Bulgaria among other countries on Islamic Jihad business and under an assumed name.

According to the article Zawahiri visited Switzerland, Bosnia, Bulgaria and the Russian province of Dagestan and even made surreptitious fund-raising swings through Texas, California and New York in the 1990s.

In 1998, Zawahiri and bin Laden officially aligned, and al-Qaeda was born.

In a separate development Ayman al-Zawahiri biographer, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, announced that Zawahiri visited New Zealand and Australia in 1996 to recruit militants.

In those days, in early 1996, he was on a mission to organise his network all over the world, Mir said.

The claims come as Pakistani officials said the previous day they might have cornered al-Zawahiri in a remote area near the Afghan border after two days of intense fighting.

On Saturday Pakistan's military arrested more than 100 suspects in a five-day assault on militants holed up in mud fortresses along the border where Ayman al Zawahri is believed trapped.

[Crvena zvezda]

Croatian police deny reports on mojahedin using port of Split to reach Bosnia
March 24, 2004
BIH, HR
Text of report in English by Croatian news agency HINA

Zagreb, 24 March: The Croatian Interior Ministry said on Wednesday [24 March] it had no knowledge of Islamic Mujahideen fighters travelling through the southern coastal city of Split after receiving training in central Bosnia, as reported by Italian media.

"The Ministry and the Police Directorate have no information to support the media reports. We find these reports arbitrary and not based on relevant facts," Interior Ministry spokesman Zlatko Mehun told Hina.

Mehun said that the Croatian police were in constant contact with foreign police forces and that they had received "no information either from the Italian or the Spanish police about the port of Split being used by Mujahideen to enter and leave Bosnia-Hercegovina".

Some Croatian media on Wednesday carried reports by the Italian press saying that the Spanish police and Italian security services had found that the Spanish cell of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, which is suspected of train bombings in Madrid two weeks ago that killed nearly 200 people, consisted of Mujahideen trained in camps near the central Bosnian town of Zenica. The Mujahideen were reportedly transferred to Spain via Split and Ancona.

[Crvena zvezda]

Al-Qaeda Made Its Way to Romania
March 30, 2004
RO
People who have links to the terror network Al-Qaeda have traveled to Romania heading from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The news was broken by the Director of the Romanian Special Services Radu Rimofte, who refused to reveal the terrorists nationality.

Some of them have been expelled at the beginning of the year.

Romania recently unveiled a new color-coded terror threat advisory system. Romania's President Ion Iliescu, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, the Defense and Interior Ministers have already greenlighted it. The decision of the Supreme Defence Council is yet to rule on it.

[Crvena zvezda]

Bulgaria "Hosts" Al-Qaeda Bases
June 12, 2004
BG, RO
Al-Qaeda has intensified its presence in Central and Eastern Europe.

Islamic radicals are establishing operative bases in Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, Rolf Tophoven, director of the German Institute on Terorism and Security warned.

In an interview for the German Tagesspiegel newspaper Tophoven the combination of Islamic terror cells and organized crime in these countries might turn into a very dangerous one.

[Crvena zvezda]

Bulgarian Al-Qaeda-Linked Suspects
July 26, 2004
BG
A dozen Bulgarian nationals are suspected of links to terror organization al-Qaeda, according to reports.

The Bulgarian agents have collected information about people and sites and informed al-Qaeda about the society and political elite sentiments to the war in Iraq and Bulgaria's participation in it, local 24 hours Daily reported, citing sources from the secret services.

Several have been exposed to be double agents and consequently expelled from Bulgaria's services.

Kenyan Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam, who is on FBI's list of most wanted terrorists, has reportedly visited Bulgaria's capital several months ago.

Fahid Msalam was indicted on December 16, 1998, in the Southern District of New York, for his alleged involvement in the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, and for conspiring to kill U.S. nationals.

The US Rewards For Justice Program offers a reward of up to USD 25 M for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam.

Last week an Islamic grouping named al-Tawhid threatened Bulgaria and Poland with bloodbaths unless they withdraw troops from Iraq.

Bulgaria's authorities pledged that the country would not bow to terrorists.

[Crvena zvezda]

Bosnian president reportedly receives assassination threats
December 16, 2003
BIH
Zagreb, 16 December: The chairman of the Bosnia-Hercegovina Presidency, Dragan Covic, has received threats about possible attacks during the upcoming Christmas holidays, Covic's office said in a statement Tuesday [16 December]. Bosnia's edition of the Zagreb-based daily Vecernji list cited unnamed sources as saying that "foreign intelligence services informed chairman Covic of assassination threats from Islamic radical circles in Bosnia".

Covic said in an interview for the Washington Times last summer that there were "cells" in Bosnia which were connected with Al-Qaidah.

Members of the Muslim-led Social Democratic Action (SDA) protested in parliament against Covic's statement.

Late last week, the NATO-led Stabilization Force raided several houses in the Muslim-populated village of Serici in central Bosnia under suspicion that persons of Arab origins were hiding there. This was also confirmed by the local police.

Reporting on the Sfor operation, the Federation's news agency FENA said that Sfor members from the US contingent raided residential areas searching for weapons and other materials which could lead to the Al-Qaidah terrorist network.