By STEPHEN CASTLE
Published: November 23, 2010
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BRUSSELS — In a series of early morning raids, the police in three European countries arrested 11 people on Tuesday, saying that some were part of an international jihadist group planning a terrorist attack in Belgium and that others were members of a Chechen group.
Belgian television showed pictures of arrests by police officers in two areas of Antwerp, a port city with a large immigrant population, where 7 of the 11 people were detained.
Three arrests were made in Amsterdam, and one in Aachen, near Germany’s border with Belgium.
The suspects were Belgian, Dutch, Moroccan and Russian of Chechen origin, said Leen Nuyts, a spokeswoman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office.
The German authorities said the suspect arrested in Aachen was 31 and of Russian origin. They said he would be transferred to Belgium.
Ms. Nuyts said the arrests were not related to the recent reports of possible terrorist attacks that had put Germany on a heightened state of alert.
Nonetheless, the intense police activity centering on Belgium coincided with concerns in European countries that an attack could be imminent. The arrests were coordinated among the security services of several nations.
The group suspected of planning an attack in Belgium used the Web site Ansar al-Mujahideen, said a statement from the Belgian federal prosecutors. No specific target was identified. The statement said the other arrests focused on “the recruiters, candidate jihadists and financing of a Chechen terrorist organization (the Caucasus Emirate).”
Belgium’s investigations, which began at the end of 2009, were led by Judge Philippe Van Linthout and have resulted in the detention of several suspects in Spain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, the statement added.
In a separate effort to uncover terrorist group financing, the Belgian police searched 17 homes in and around Brussels and questioned people in an inquiry focused on the Belgian Islamic Center, the Belgian broadcaster VRT reported on its Web site.
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