'Terror suspects planning nerve gas attack in London'
London, June 4. (PTI): Islamic terror suspects were planning a chemical attack in London similar to the 1995 outrage on the Tokyo underground, which prompted last week's counter-terrorist operation in the east of the British capital, in which one person was shot and another arrested, according to security sources.
British internal intelligence agency Mi5 operatives suspect that Al-Qaeda sympathisers intended to produce a nerve agent - probably sarin - and release it in a confined space, such as a tube carriage, to maximise the number of casualties.
The sarin attack on three railway lines in the Japanese capital killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000 in March 1995. It was the world's first major chemical attack and used sarin, a nerve agent, which attacks the respiratory system.
According to security sources, a new atrocity was planned on or close to the anniversary of the July 7 attacks in London, when four terrorists killed themselves and 52 others, and injured more than 700 people.
This would have provided a rallying call to Al-Qaeda sympathisers to carry on their 'jihad' or holy war against the West.
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Terror plot foiled
17 arrests Sweep nets explosive materials as part of international investigation
A Canadian counterterrorism investigation that led to the arrests of 17 people accused of plotting bombings in Ontario is linked to probes in a half-dozen countries.
Well before police tactical teams began their sweeps around Toronto on Friday, at least 18 related arrests had already taken place in Canada, the United States, Britain, Bosnia, Denmark, Sweden and Bangladesh.
The six-month RCMP investigation, called Project OSage, is one of several overlapping probes that include an FBI case called Operation Northern Exposure and a British probe known as Operation Mazhar.
At a news conference yesterday, the RCMP announced terrorism charges had been laid against a dozen Toronto-area men and five teens under the age of 18. The group "took steps to acquire components necessary to create explosive devices" including three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, police said.
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer is commonly used in terrorist bombs, police said.
By comparison, the truck bomb used to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people, contained a single tonne of ammonium nitrate.
"It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack," said RCMP assistant commissioner Mike McDonell.
"This group posed a real threat. It had the capacity and intent to carry out these attacks."
Police declined to identify the intended targets because the investigation is continuing, but said they were all in southern Ontario and did not include the Toronto transit system, as some news media had reported.
As senior RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service officials spoke to reporters, some of the evidence seized during police raids was displayed on a table guarded by police officers.
The materials included a bag of ammonium nitrate, a pistol and ammunition clip, computer hard drive, and what appeared to be a cellphone-activated electronic detonator hidden inside a small black fishing tackle box.
The accused made brief court appearances in Brampton, north of Toronto, yesterday.
They face charges of participating in the acts of a terrorist group, including training and recruitment; firearms and explosives offences for the purposes of terrorism and providing property for terrorist purposes.
The accused men are mostly in their teens and 20s. They include men of Somali, Egyptian, Jamaican and Trinidadian origin. All are residents of Canada and "for the most part" are Canadian citizens, police said.
Charged are: Fahim Ahmad, 21, Zakaria Amara, 20, Asad Ansari, 21, Shareef Abdelhaleen, 30, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, Mohammed Dirie, 22, Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24, Jahmaal James, 23, Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19, Steven Vikash Chand, 25, and Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21. A 12th man and five youths can't be named.
"For various reasons, they appear to have become adherents to a violent ideology inspired by Al-Qa'ida," said Luc Portelance, the CSIS assistant director of operations.
"Any movement that has the ability to turn people against their fellow citizens is obviously something that CSIS is very concerned about."
He called the investigation the largest since the Anti-terrorism Act was passed in December 2001, in response to the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
"It is important to know that this operation in no way reflects negatively on any specific community, or ethno-cultural group in Canada," he added.
CSIS and RCMP officials invited about a dozen members of Toronto's Muslim community to a meeting yesterday morning to discuss potential fallout.
"The police said they are cognizant of the fact that there could be a backlash and that they've taken all precautions to ensure that nothing like this happens," said Canadian Muslim Congress spokesperson Tarek Fatah. "They are very conscious of the fact that this is a small group of criminals and they don't reflect the vast Muslim community in Toronto."
The Toronto busts are linked to arrests that began last August at a Canadian border post near Niagara Falls and continued in October in Sarajevo, London and Scandinavia, and this year in New York and Georgia.
The FBI confirmed yesterday the arrests were related to the recent indictments in the United States of Ehsanul Sadequee and Syed Ahmed, who are accused of meeting with extremists in Toronto last March to discuss terrorist training and plots.
London, June 4. (PTI): Islamic terror suspects were planning a chemical attack in London similar to the 1995 outrage on the Tokyo underground, which prompted last week's counter-terrorist operation in the east of the British capital, in which one person was shot and another arrested, according to security sources.
British internal intelligence agency Mi5 operatives suspect that Al-Qaeda sympathisers intended to produce a nerve agent - probably sarin - and release it in a confined space, such as a tube carriage, to maximise the number of casualties.
The sarin attack on three railway lines in the Japanese capital killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000 in March 1995. It was the world's first major chemical attack and used sarin, a nerve agent, which attacks the respiratory system.
According to security sources, a new atrocity was planned on or close to the anniversary of the July 7 attacks in London, when four terrorists killed themselves and 52 others, and injured more than 700 people.
This would have provided a rallying call to Al-Qaeda sympathisers to carry on their 'jihad' or holy war against the West.
____________________________________________________________
Terror plot foiled
17 arrests Sweep nets explosive materials as part of international investigation
A Canadian counterterrorism investigation that led to the arrests of 17 people accused of plotting bombings in Ontario is linked to probes in a half-dozen countries.
Well before police tactical teams began their sweeps around Toronto on Friday, at least 18 related arrests had already taken place in Canada, the United States, Britain, Bosnia, Denmark, Sweden and Bangladesh.
The six-month RCMP investigation, called Project OSage, is one of several overlapping probes that include an FBI case called Operation Northern Exposure and a British probe known as Operation Mazhar.
At a news conference yesterday, the RCMP announced terrorism charges had been laid against a dozen Toronto-area men and five teens under the age of 18. The group "took steps to acquire components necessary to create explosive devices" including three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, police said.
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer is commonly used in terrorist bombs, police said.
By comparison, the truck bomb used to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people, contained a single tonne of ammonium nitrate.
"It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack," said RCMP assistant commissioner Mike McDonell.
"This group posed a real threat. It had the capacity and intent to carry out these attacks."
Police declined to identify the intended targets because the investigation is continuing, but said they were all in southern Ontario and did not include the Toronto transit system, as some news media had reported.
As senior RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service officials spoke to reporters, some of the evidence seized during police raids was displayed on a table guarded by police officers.
The materials included a bag of ammonium nitrate, a pistol and ammunition clip, computer hard drive, and what appeared to be a cellphone-activated electronic detonator hidden inside a small black fishing tackle box.
The accused made brief court appearances in Brampton, north of Toronto, yesterday.
They face charges of participating in the acts of a terrorist group, including training and recruitment; firearms and explosives offences for the purposes of terrorism and providing property for terrorist purposes.
The accused men are mostly in their teens and 20s. They include men of Somali, Egyptian, Jamaican and Trinidadian origin. All are residents of Canada and "for the most part" are Canadian citizens, police said.
Charged are: Fahim Ahmad, 21, Zakaria Amara, 20, Asad Ansari, 21, Shareef Abdelhaleen, 30, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, Mohammed Dirie, 22, Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24, Jahmaal James, 23, Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19, Steven Vikash Chand, 25, and Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21. A 12th man and five youths can't be named.
"For various reasons, they appear to have become adherents to a violent ideology inspired by Al-Qa'ida," said Luc Portelance, the CSIS assistant director of operations.
"Any movement that has the ability to turn people against their fellow citizens is obviously something that CSIS is very concerned about."
He called the investigation the largest since the Anti-terrorism Act was passed in December 2001, in response to the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
"It is important to know that this operation in no way reflects negatively on any specific community, or ethno-cultural group in Canada," he added.
CSIS and RCMP officials invited about a dozen members of Toronto's Muslim community to a meeting yesterday morning to discuss potential fallout.
"The police said they are cognizant of the fact that there could be a backlash and that they've taken all precautions to ensure that nothing like this happens," said Canadian Muslim Congress spokesperson Tarek Fatah. "They are very conscious of the fact that this is a small group of criminals and they don't reflect the vast Muslim community in Toronto."
The Toronto busts are linked to arrests that began last August at a Canadian border post near Niagara Falls and continued in October in Sarajevo, London and Scandinavia, and this year in New York and Georgia.
The FBI confirmed yesterday the arrests were related to the recent indictments in the United States of Ehsanul Sadequee and Syed Ahmed, who are accused of meeting with extremists in Toronto last March to discuss terrorist training and plots.
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