Bulgaria denies report of al-Qaeda plot to hit US in Bosnia
AFP
The head of Bulgaria's counter-espionage service denied a Bosnian newspaper report which said that the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda was working in Sofia with the aim of attacking US nationals in Bosnia.
"This information is paradoxical, there is no truth in it," said Ivan Chobanov, who was quoted on Bulgarian radio.
Interior Ministry Secretary General Boiko Borisso added that "Bulgaria's security services have not worked on an al-Qaeda cell in Bulgaria".
"Bulgaria's foreign ministry has not been informed by Bosnian authorities, or by other official sources, of preparations for terrorist attacks against American sites in Europe going on in Sofia," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry "will try to verify this information and has asked its embassy in Sarajevo to ask the Bosnian authorities about it," the statement said.
The Bosnian newspaper Dnevni Avaz quoted an unnamed senior official as saying that Bosnia's Muslim-Croat government had received information that members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in Sofia were planning a terrorist attack against Americans in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital.
The report said the attack could be similar in scale to those which hit the United States on September 11 last year.
It came after the US embassy in Sarajevo and in the southern city of Mostar decided on Friday to close down its offices due to unspecified security threats.
Bosnia's government held an emergency meeting on Friday in Sarajevo to discuss the security situation following the US embassy closure, an official told AFP.
The United States blames bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network for the September 11 attacks, in which hijackers slammed airplanes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, leaving some 3,000 dead.
War is against Muslim. It is not against Serbia, or Russia. Even N. Korea may not come to head soon unless N. Korean regime becomes suicidal. N. Korea likes saberattling and intimidation not all-out war unlike Muslim fundamentalists. In foreseeable future, it is war against them, in several places, but one at a time. China may become another player, who wants to "liberate" Taiwan while Americans are busy or get tired. Or they simply want to weaken American power by helping fundies to fight Americans. They hate fundies. But they hate America, too. The bigger guy may be the first priority. N. Korea could tie up military assets, though. As for Russia, they are likely to snare favorable deals from Americans while Russia does not join the fray and discreetly give America maneuvering and indirect support.