Spain alerts Britain after foiling bomb plot on eve of Musharraf visit
January 20, 2008
SPANISH police say they have foiled an attempt by Islamic extremists to carry out bomb attacks coinciding with a state visit to Europe by Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan. It was reported that other European countries, including Britain, had been put on alert by the Spanish for the possibility of terror attacks.
Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, the Spanish interior minister, said that five homes and a mosque in central Barcelona had been raided and a quantity of bomb-making material had been seized, including four detonators. Twelve Pakistanis and two Indians were arrested on Friday. Rubalcaba said police acted on a tip-off from “another secret service” and discovered that some of those detained were about to purchase explosives.
The arrests were made just days before a visit to Europe this week by Musharraf. He is due to go to France and the UK and attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The minister said that he could not reveal more about the police operation which was continuing but the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), the Spanish secret service, had warned at least four other European countries to prepare for “imminent attacks”.
A source at the CNI told El Pais, the Spanish newspaper, that the countries facing the immediate threat were France, Britain and Portugal.
The same source said police had found triacetone triperoxide in the Barcelona raids. This is a cheap form of explosive used by suicide bombers in the Middle East. It was used by Richard Reid, the thwarted British shoe bomber. The main concern was that it appeared that an unknown quantity of the explosive had been removed before the raids. “We are facing a well organised group that had moved a stage further than just being radicals,” the minister said.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3216714.ece
MOSCOW - Police in southeast Moscow have discovered around 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives stashed in a deserted building, a police spokesman said on Saturday. The tetryl, a solid yellow explosive compound used to make detonators, was found in a deserted outhouse near a gardening club in the capital's Shchyolkovsky District.
Police found "40 metal pipe off-cuts that were previously part of an elongated mine clearing charge, with about 100 kilograms of tetryl inside," the spokesman said. Police believe the tetryl was put there by a local resident previously arrested for possession of explosives.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080119/97343277.html
Pakistani police say avert bomb, cyanide disaster
Sat Jan 19, 2008
KARACHI - Pakistani police said on Saturday they had averted a disaster with the arrest of five militants planning to attack Shi'ite Muslim processions with cyanide and suicide bombs.
The arrests late on Friday in the southern city of Karachi came as minority Shi'ite Muslims across Pakistan gathered for religious commemorations that have in recent years drawn attacks from Sunni Muslim militants. "Their arrest has averted a big disaster ... but the threat of suicide attacks is still there," provincial police chief Azhar Ali Farooqi told a news conference.
The five militants, one of whom was preparing to become a suicide bomber, belonged to different Sunni Muslim militant groups and were picked up in raids in different parts of the city, Farooqi said. "They planned to carry out suicide and grenade attacks on processions," he said.
Police seized 6 kg (13.2 lb) of explosives for use in suicide jackets, 2 kg (4.4 lb) ball bearings, one kg (2.2 lb) of nails, detonators, three hand grenades and two pistols. Police also seized 500 grams (17 oz) of cyanide that Farooqi said was going to be used to poison drinks handed out to people taking part in the Shi'ite processions.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSISL212765