{"id":9598,"date":"2010-12-16T13:50:43","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T10:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=9598"},"modified":"2010-12-16T14:19:18","modified_gmt":"2010-12-16T11:19:18","slug":"europe-and-us-face-new-christmas-terror-attacks-1612201","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/europe-and-us-face-new-christmas-terror-attacks-1612201\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe and US face new Christmas terror attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Al Qaeda terrorists are planning suicide attacks in the US and Europe over the Christmas period, insurgents captured in Iraq have reportedly claimed.
\n<\/strong>
\nNews of their suspected confessions came from Iraqi officials as an American intelligence source confirmed the threat as credible.<\/p>\n

Among the alleged plots revealed by rebels was last weekend’s failed bombing in Stockholm where the suicide attacker detonated a device in a car and then killed himself in a separate blast.<\/p>\n

Two bystanders were injured in the second explosion and police are looking at the possibility that the Iraqi-born Swedish bomber Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly was radicalised in Britain.<\/p>\n

But Iraqi interior minister Jawad al Bolani said the insurgents made the claim about the Stockholm incident after the bombing happened.<\/p>\n

Mr al Bolani and Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said Iraq has alerted US and European authorities as well as Interpol about the suspected plots.<\/p>\n

But neither official has specified which European country or countries are facing potential danger – and it is not possible to verify the insurgents’ claims.<\/p>\n

However, Western counter-terrorism officials generally are on high alert during the festive period.<\/p>\n

This time of year is particularly in focus after the failed attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called underwear bomber, who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009.<\/p>\n

Mr al Bolani said several insurgents claimed to be part of a cell that took its orders directly from al Qaeda’s central leadership.<\/p>\n

He said at least one of the captured suspects was a foreign fighter from Tunisia.<\/p>\n

The confessions were the result of recent operations by Iraqi security forces that have seized at least 73 suspected operatives in the last two weeks, Mr al Bolani said.<\/p>\n

An Iraqi intelligence official said threat information appeared to indicate that Denmark might be attacked, but refused to give details.<\/p>\n

Also, a senior US intelligence official in Washington said authorities were closely watching two people in an unspecified European country suspected of being linked to the alleged plot.<\/p>\n

The pair did not appear to be so-called homegrown terrorists, according to the US official who would not say where they were believed to be from.<\/p>\n

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 8)<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Al Qaeda terrorists are planning suicide attacks in the US and Europe over the Christmas period, insurgents captured in Iraq have reportedly claimed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":9599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,80,63,17,14],"tags":[2815,11380,517,12644],"class_list":["post-9598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-europe","category-world","tag-al-qaeda","tag-attack","tag-christmas","tag-terror-attack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}