Police Detain Armed Man in Bosnia

Police Detain Armed Man in Bosnia
Police Detain Armed Man Near U.S. Commander of Bosnia Peacekeeping Force

MOSTAR, Bosnia-Herzegovina July 8 — Police detained a Bosnian man after catching him with a loaded weapon near where the U.S. commander of a peacekeeping force was about to visit, police said Monday.

Moments before U.S. Lt. Gen. John B. Sylvester was to arrive at Mostar's city hall, police stopped the 31-year-old man in his car several hundred yards away and found an automatic rifle with a silencer lying in the back seat.

"We are focusing on this arrest because of the type of weapon found and the fact that at the same time, the NATO commander in Bosnia, Gen. John B. Sylvester, was in town," a police statement said.

The suspect, who was not identified, was detained on a charge of illegally possessing the weapon.

Sylvester was in Mostar, about 35 miles southwest of Sarajevo, to visit local officials and NATO-led peacekeepers under his command.

"Obviously, the fact that Gen. Sylvester was in Mostar at the time of this arrest causes us concern," said Maj. Scott Lundy, spokesman for the 18,000-strong peacekeeping contingent in Bosnia. "We will be following the police investigation closely."

NATO investigates alleged plot to kill US commander

SARAJEVO, July 8 (AFP) - NATO troops in Bosnia are investigating allegations of a plot to kill the US commander of the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) during a visit to Mostar at the weekend after a man armed with a sniper gun was arrested during a security sweep, a SFOR spokesman said Monday.

Police in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar identified the man as A.K., aged 31, and said he was carrying a 9 mm machinegun equipped with a silencer, sniperscope and ammunition.

The man was arrested Saturday just before Lieutenant-General John Sylvester, commander of the 19,000 troops in Bosnia, arrived in Mostar to meet with the town's mayor and pay a visit to Spanish troops serving in the area.

In a statement, Mostar police said it was looking into a link between the discovery of the "sophisticated weaponry" and Sylvester's visit to Mostar.

A police source in Mostar identified the man as Adnan Kadric, a member of a crime ring based in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, and said authorities had ordered that he remain in custody for eight days.

He said Kadric denies any wrongdoing, saying that he had bought the gun in the nearby town of Posusje and planned to deliver it to Zenica.

But the Croatian daily Vecernji List reported Monday that Kadric was "leader of a terrorist organisation in Zenica."

Citing sources from SFOR and UN's international police in Bosnia, the daily described Kadric as "an international terrorist, who has recently resided in Germany and Netherlands, where he was slightly wounded in a clash with Russian mafia three months ago."

"The police suspect Kadric of attempting to assassinate SFOR's commander," the daily said.

SFOR declined to comment on the report.

"Obviously, the fact that Lieutenant-General Sylvester was in Mostar at the time of his arrest causes us concern," SFOR spokesman Scott Lundy said.

"The Mostar police have primary responsibility to conduct the investigation and we will be relying on them to keep us fully informed of what they learned, " a SFOR statement quoted Sylvester as saying.

"We also have two criminal investigators from SFOR who are working together with Mostar officials," he said.

"Once we know the results of the investigation we will take appropriate action," Sylvester added.

SFOR troops have been deployed under the terms of the 1995 peace accord that ended the war the 1992-1995 war. There have been no casualties among SFOR troops resulting from hostile action.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.