Category: Balkans

Balkans: Balkans used as logistics base for Islamic terrorism 301 Reads

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - 11:19 AM

Washington /09/05/ 15:08

US officials said intelligence reports from the Balkans have identified a support structure for several terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, among the Muslim communities in Albania and in the former Yugoslavia, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia, "Washington Times" writes in today's edition

The six foreign-born Muslims accused of planning a shooting attack at the US military base included four ethnic Albanians, and US officials say their arrests highlight how Islamist groups are using the Balkans region to help in recruiting and financing terrorism.

US officials said the Islamists were motivated by al Qaeda sympathies and that ringleader Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, who was born in Jordan, had copies of the wills of two September 11 terrorists on his laptop computer.

Prosecutors described the men as "radical Islamists," with four coming from the province of Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia, where the ethnic Albanian population of Muslims fought one of the several wars that grew out of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Suspect Agron Abdullahu, who faces only weapons violations in the case, was described in court papers as a "sniper in Kosovo."

http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=66775&NrIssue=341&NrSection=30