NETHERLANDS - Dutch arrest alleged UK terror suspect at airport
Published:Monday | September 20, 2010 | 12:00 AM
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP):
Dutch police yesterday arrested a British man of Somali ancestry at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport for possible links to a terrorist group, a spokesman for the Dutch prosecutors said.
The man was arrested after flying in from Liverpool, England, and before he flew out to Uganda, prosecutors' spokesman Evert Boerstra said, without specifying what terrorist group was involved. His name and age have not been released.
"He was arrested on the tip-off from British authorities," Boerstra told The Associated Press.
Dutch state broadcaster NOS reported that the suspect is allegedly linked to Somalia's most dangerous militant group, al-Shabab, which has claimed responsibility for suicide-bombing attacks at United Nations facilities and other targets, including attacks in July, in Uganda's capital during the World Cup final. 76 people were killed in those attacks.
Retaliation blasts
Al-Shabab said those blasts were in retaliation for civilian deaths caused by African Union troops in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and the group has called for Uganda to withdraw its peacekeeping forces from Somalia.
Militant veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts help train al-Shabab fighters, one of the reasons the sophistication of its attacks has risen in recent months. The al-Qaida-linked group in the past has recruited Somali-Americans to carry out suicide bombings in Mogadishu.
The chief of Britain's domestic spy agency MI5, Jonathan Evans, said last Thursday that would-be terrorists from around the world, including dozens of people either born or living in Britain, were training in al-Shabab camps.
Dutch prosecutors could not immediately confirm the NOS report.
London's Scotland Yard said it would make no comment, while authorities at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport said they had no knowledge of the arrest. A spokeswoman for Liverpool's police force said she had no information on the arrest, while Britain's Foreign Office said it was looking into the matter.