8 Terror Suspects Arrested in Denmark

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Eight men with alleged links to leading senior al-Qaida terrorists were arrested in the heart of Denmark on Tuesday, the country's intelligence service said, claiming to have thwarted a bomb plot.

The pre-dawn raids sent jitters through a country that stirred Muslim anger and deadly protests last year after a newspaper printed 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

"This could indicate that (al-Qaida) now is able to pick up the phone and order a terror act in Denmark," said Hans Joergen Bonnichsen, who retired as operative head of the PET intelligence service in 2006.

However, Jakob Scharf, head of the PET, said the foiled terror plot was not connected to either the uproar over the prophet cartoons or Denmark's involvement in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

The suspects - six Danish citizens and two foreigners with residence permits - had been under surveillance for some time when they were arrested.

"With the arrests, we have prevented a terror attack," Scharf told reporters in Copenhagen. He did not identify the target.

The suspects, aged 19 to 29, were not identified but Scharf described them as "militant Islamists with connections to leading al-Qaida persons."

All eight were arrested without incident in raids on 11 locations in and around Copenhagen, including the Ishoej suburb and the Noerrebro district of the capital, authorities said.

The suspects are of Afghan, Pakistani, Somali and Turkish origin, Scharf told reporters. He said Danish investigators had worked with "several foreign cooperation partners" before making the arrests.

Two of the suspects, both 21, were arraigned in court later Tuesday on preliminary charges of acquiring material to make one or more bombs for terror attacks in Denmark or abroad.

They sat quietly with their arms crossed listening to the preliminary charges before reporters were ordered out of the courtroom.

The court ordered both held in custody for 27 days - the first 13 days in solitary confinement - while investigators continue to the probe. It was not immediately clear when the six others would be arraigned.

Scharf declined to say whether more people were being sought.

The TV2 News channel reported that a 19-year-old electrician was arrested in Ishoej, while a taxi driver in his early 20s was arrested in Noerrebro. TV footage shot from a helicopter showed bomb squads and forensics agents at those locations.

In Ishoej, anti-terror police broke down the door of the apartment where a Turkish family was living, Karina Elbaek, who lives on the floor below, told The Associated Press.

"They were ordinary neighbors, really friendly, helpful and extroverted," Elbaek said of the family.

Sadie al-Fatlawi, who lives on the floor above the cab driver in Noerrebro, said police ordered him and other neighbors to leave the building during the raid.

"When we came down to the police van they said that they suspected that there were some explosives in the property, or something that could burn very violently," al-Fatlawi told the AP.

The taxi driver was of Pakistani origin and had recently moved into the building, al-Fatlawi said.

Danish public radio DR identified a third suspect as a man of Afghan origin who had grown a beard and wore traditional Afghan clothing. He lived with parents and his two sisters in Avedoere, another suburb south of the capital, DR said, citing neighbors.

It is the third time Danish police have cracked down on suspected terrorist networks since 2005.

A separate trial of four men suspected of planning to blow up a target in Denmark or elsewhere in Europe is to begin in Copenhagen on Wednesday.

In February, a court sentenced Abdul Basit Abu Lifa, a Danish citizen of Palestinian descent, to seven years in prison for his involvement in a Bosnia-linked plot to blow up a target in Europe. Three other defendants were acquitted, although one is awaiting a retrial.

Terrorists have not hit Denmark in more than two decades, but the July 2005 bombings in London stirred fears that the Scandinavian country could be targeted for its participation in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

Those fears grew after a Danish newspaper published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, triggering fiery protests in Muslim countries in early 2006. Many Muslims considered the drawings blasphemous.

In June, Denmark pulled out its 460-member army contingent from Iraq and replaced it with a small air force squad.