(Filed: 30/08/2002)
The suspected cell - some of whom worked at Detroit airport - are accused of having surveillance videos of Disneyland in California and the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas that law enforcement agents believe were to be the targets of their attacks.
The government said the suspects were members of the Salafi Group for Call and Combat, a Muslim militant group launched in Algeria and supported by Osama bin Laden. They are also accused of trying to recruit terrorists for attacks on a US air base in Turkey and a hospital in Jordan.
Al Ansar Al Islami in Iraq Islamic extremist group says it killed 3 Kurdish leaders
Wednesday, Jan 7, 2004
Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia Muslim Unrest Flares in Thailand
06 January 2004
Jan 7 (CSM) - Just as residents of southern Thailand thought the New Year had come peacefully in spite of a holiday terrorism alert, a series of coordinated terror attacks has prompted the government to impose martial law and has renewed fears of resurgent Islamic separatism in the region.
On Monday, bombs killed two policemen in the city of Pattani, near the Malaysian border. The attacks followed violence over the weekend in neighboring Narathiwat Province, where arsonists attacked 20 schools and militants raided an armory, killing four soldiers and stealing more than 100 rifles.
Taliban in Afghanistan Taliban sorry for "mistake" that killed 16
Wed 7 January, 2004 13:08
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ousted Taliban has apologised for a bomb attack in the southern city of Kandahar that killed 16 people, including many children, and called it a botched attempt to target U.S. troops.
The ousted Islamic militia initially denied involvement in Tuesday's explosion near a military compound as children were passing on their way home from school.
The blast came just two days after a new constitution was adopted in Kabul, which Afghans hope will usher in a period of peace and stability after a quarter of a century of bloodshed.
"It was a mistake by our mujahideen (holy warriors)," senior Taliban commander Mullah Sabir Momin said by satellite telephone on Wednesday.
"We wanted to target the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) office in the city, but because of a small mistake, this plan failed," he told Reuters.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front AFP: Mindanao bombing politically motivated
Wednesday, January 7, 2004 11:48 PM
The Armed Forces said Wednesday that it was inclined to believe that the Sunday bombing incident in Parang, Maguindanao, which killed 16 people, was politically motivated, based on information it has extracted from some injured victims.
Military troops also said the suspects could be renegade antipeace faction group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front with connection to some politicians.
Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, Armed Forces Public Information Office chief, said they had received reports from 6th Infantry Division based in Maguindanao that some victims of the bombing who could identify the perpetrators had been identified.
Lucero added that some of the victims had already provided information to the local police about the driver of the tricycle used in the bombing.
An Afghan soldier looks at the bombing scene showing a wrecked bicycle near a damaged truck in Kandahar, Afghanistan Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004. A bomb attached to the bicycle killed at least 10 people, most of them children Tuesday, underlining the violence still plaguing Afghanistan two years after the fall of the Taliban. (AP Photo/Noor Khan)
A French gendarme patrols in front of an Air France plane leaving for New York. Authorities across Europe are searching for a passenger who failed to show up for an Air France flight on Christmas Eve, the ABC network reported, adding the male passenger was believed to have connections with al-Qaeda and to have undergone terrorist training in Afghanistan (AFP/File/Thomas Coex)