Dutch police arrest terror suspects
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-11 08:59

Special forces overpowered two suspected Islamic extremists Wednesday after a daylong armed standoff, adding to Dutch concerns that global terrorism has spread into their corner of Europe.

Police said five more suspects were detained in two other cities on a day that possible links emerged between the Muslim militant charged with murdering a Dutch filmmaker a week ago and terrorists allegedly involved in attacks and plots in Morocco and Spain.

A blind-folded unidentified suspect is arrested in the Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday Nov. 10, 2004. Dutch special forces stormed a house Wednesday and arrested two terror suspects, ending a 15-hour siege in which sporadic gunfire was exchanged and three police officers were wounded. [AP]

The drama in The Hague, known as the City of Peace for the international peace institutions based here, was tied to what officials called coordinated raids on "a network of radical Muslims" and it resulted in three police officers and one suspect being wounded.

The bloodshed began when police tried to force their way into a house in the Laak working-class neighborhood at 2:45 a.m. and a booby-trap bomb exploded, seriously injuring an officer, authorities said. Gunshots rang out and a suspect threw a grenade out the front door, witnesses said.

Snipers of the Dutch police point their guns to an apartment in The Hague. Dutch police stormed the apartment and arrested two people, ending a 14-hour stand-off that began when suspects sought in an anti-terrorism probe wounded three officers with a hand grenade. [AFP]

Hundreds of police and soldiers converged on the district behind the Hollands Spoor railway station and police helicopters hovered above as neighbors were evacuated. Eight to 10 gunshots were heard after 4 p.m., and then black-masked troopers fired tear gas and stormed the house just before nightfall, arresting two suspects, one of whom had been shot in the shoulder.

Police said a third suspect was arrested in Amersfoort and four were detained in Amsterdam in related operations.

Ethnic tensions have been high in the Netherlands since the Nov. 2 slaying of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who had criticized Islamic fundamentalism.

Six suspects, believed to be members of a radical Islamic terrorist group, are in police custody in connection with the murder, including the alleged killer, 26-year-old Mohammed Bouyeri, who holds dual Dutch and Moroccan citizenship.

The Geneva newspaper Le Temps reported Wednesday that a terrorism suspect jailed in Switzerland, Mohamed Achraf, had telephone contact in September with Bouyeri.

Achraf's alleged group of Spanish-based Islamic extremists is suspected of plotting to bomb the National Court in Madrid, a hub for anti-terror investigations, as well as other targets.

Le Temps also said Achraf wired money from Switzerland to two purported Islamic militants in the Netherlands, Ziani Mahdi and Mourad Yala, who were later arrested on terrorism-related charges in Spain. Yala is believed to have met with Bouyeri several times in Amsterdam, the report said.

The Madrid newspaper El Pais said Tuesday that Spanish and Dutch police suspect Yala and Mahdi of having links with Samir Azzouz, who was arrested in the Netherlands in June for allegedly planning to bomb a major Dutch landmark. Azzouz, in turn, was friends with Bouyeri, according to Dutch officials.

Meanwhile, a Spanish police official said one of the other suspects in Van Gogh's killing was in contact with a Moroccan named Abdelamin Akoudad, who was arrested in Spain in October 2003 at Morocco's request as part of its investigation into bombings in Casablanca that killed 32 people.

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