Norway Bomb attack: Suspicion falls on Islamist militants, Norway home of cleric Mullah Krekar attacked
Norway's role in Afghanistan and its decision to file terrorism charges against a Muslim cleric may explain the Oslo bomb attack
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· guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 July 2011 16.38 BST
Oslo police have confirmed the source of the blast that damaged the prime minister's offices in Oslo was a bomb. The question now is who is likely to be behind it.
The most obvious conclusion would be a jihadist group.
It has been known for some time that al-Qaida and other related "franchises" – including the most active groups in Yemen – have been trying to develop operations. Which leads to a second question: why Norway?
The answer is threefold: In the first instance, with increased levels of security and surveillance in the UK and the US as well as other European capitals, Norway might have been seen as a softer target despite the recent breaking up of an al-Qaida cell in Norway.
A more detailed explanation of Norway's problems with al-Qaida were supplied a year ago by the Atlantic magazine in an article by Thomas Hegghammer, a senior fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment in Oslo, and Dominic Tierney .
The article followed the arrest of three men in Norway and Germany for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack involving peroxide explosives. All were Muslim immigrants to Norway.
"The first explanation," the article stated, "is Afghanistan. Norway has been part of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan from its foundation in late 2001 ... In late 2007, for example, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's second-in-command, said the group had previously threatened Norway because it participated in the war against the Muslims."
However, the article added: "Norway is, at best, a secondary player in Afghanistan. Most of its soldiers are in the northern cities of Meymaneh and Mazar-i-Sharif, a relatively quiet part of the country. And its contingent of 500 personnel is only the 18th largest in the Isaf coalition."
A second possible factor behind the attack is a Norwegian newspaper's reprinting in 2006 of a series of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, which prompted threats against the country.
A third potential explanation is the decision last week by a Norwegian prosecutor to file terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening to kill Norwegian politicians if he is deported.
The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar, the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, made to various media, including the American network NBC.
A report earlier this year by the Norwegian intelligence noted the increasing risk of a jihadi terrorist attack, with Norwegian citizens reportedly trained in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan.
"Although few people in Norway support Islamic extremism, there are activities within some groups that could contribute to heightening the security risk in 2011," the report said.
Some individuals in Norway have travelled to take part in training or fighting in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somali and Yemen, the report added.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/22/oslo-bomb-suspicion-islamist-militants
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Oslo bomb: Suspicion falls on Islamist militants
LONDON (Reuters) - A massive bomb shattered Norway's main government building in Oslo Friday, killing two people, police were quoted as saying by local news agency NTB.
There was no claim of responsibility, though NATO member Norway has been the target of threats, if not bombs, before, notably over its involvement in conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was safe, NTB said.
Here are details of some of the Islamist militant groups with a record of links to plots in Europe.
* AL QAEDA:
-- Al Qaeda is seen as the militant group that poses the more serious international threat because it is has highly experienced bombmakers and a long-established transnational networks of financial, logistical and ideological support.
-- Though the militant group formerly led by Osama bin Laden was weakened after the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, it has survived by deepening its alliances to local militants in the Afghan-Pakistan border area.
-- In an audiotape released in January 2010, bin Laden claimed responsibility for the December 25 attempted bombing of a U.S-bound plane and said it was a continuation of al Qaeda policy since the September 11 attacks.
* ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF UZBEKISTAN:
-- The IMU emerged from the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan and has also fought in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan with the aim of establishing an Islamic Caliphate.
-- With many of its supporters holed up in the tribal areas of Pakistan, it has forged close links with al Qaeda.
-- Earlier this month intelligence sources said there was a plot against European targets reportedly originating with a group in mountainous northern Pakistan, some of them believed to be European citizens.
-- One security official in Germany said word of the plot had probably come from the interrogation of a German-Afghan suspect in Afghanistan. The suspect was identified by media as Ahmed Sidiqi, a German of Afghan origin and IMU member.
- German media said he came from Hamburg and had been held in the U.S. military prison of Bagram in Afghanistan since July.
-- Counter-terrorism expert Guido Steinberg said Sidiqi was a member of a cell of militants from Hamburg that was believed to be a central component of the conspiracy and he said that the cell left for Pakistan in March 2009 and joined the IMU.
* LASHKAR-E-TAIBA/JAISH-E-MOHAMMED:
-- Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed are militant groups based in Pakistan's Punjab province and once nurtured by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency to fight India in Kashmir. They have since been banned.
-- Western security sources say both are obvious points of contact for Europeans traveling to Pakistan seeking help to travel to the tribal areas to join up with al Qaeda.
-- Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the attack on Mumbai that killed 166 people, has generally focused on Kashmir and India, though it has been linked in the past to some plots in the west.
-- David Headley, an American arrested in Chicago in 2009, has pleaded guilty of working with Lashkar-e-Taiba to plot attacks in India, including surveillance of targets in Mumbai.
Headley is also charged with plotting a revenge attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
-- LeT's humanitarian wing, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, enjoys support in the Pakistani Diaspora and security sources have said they feared LeT could exploit this network to facilitate an al Qaeda-inspired attack on the west.
-- Jaish-e-Mohammed has also been linked to plots in the west. It is seen as closer to al Qaeda than Lashkar-e-Taiba.
* AL SHABAAB:
-- Al Shabaab, which means "Youth" in Arabic, has taken control of large areas of south and central Somalia. The Horn of Africa nation has been mired in anarchy since warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
-- Somali officials said the bomber who killed 22 people, including three government ministers, at a graduation ceremony in December 2009 was a 26-year-old Danish citizen of Somali descent. One of the bombers that struck an African Union base in September 2009 was reportedly from Seattle, while about 20 young men were said to have disappeared from Minneapolis's large Somali community in the last two years to join al Shabaab.
-- Shabaab's external reach has been highlighted after January 2010's attack on cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in Copenhagen, as well as its pledge to support Yemeni insurgents linked to al Qaeda who are believed to be behind the foiled Christmas Day bombing of a commercial airliner over Detroit.
-- It also claimed responsibility for the attack in Uganda in July 2010 when bombers killed 79 people in Kampala at venues packed with fans watching the World Cup final.
TEHRIK-E-TALIBAN PAKISTAN:
-- The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, is the group most influenced by al Qaeda and focuses on attacking the Pakistani state, which it considers illegitimate.
-- The TTP claimed responsibility for an attack in Mohmand, a Pashtun region on the northwestern border with Afghanistan which killed 102 people and wounded at least 80.
-- Earlier this month a British man, Abdul Jabbar, reportedly killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan, had ties with the would-be Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani intelligence official said. The man had also been in the process of setting up a branch for the Taliban in Britain.
-- The TTP in September had threatened attacks on the United States and Europe. Shahzad was the closest it came to success.
* AQIM:
-- Led by Abdelmalek Droukdel, AQIM burst onto the public stage in January 2007, a product of the rebranding of fighters previously known as Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
-- The Salafists had waged war against Algeria's security forces but in late 2006 they sought to adopt a broader jihadi ideology by allying themselves with al Qaeda.
-- Security officials were particularly concerned that rebels, who belong to AQIM, could use cash from drug smuggling to recruit new fighters and finance violent attacks.
-- U.S. officials have said traffickers use the Sahara as a staging post for flying illegal drugs from South America into Europe and that AQIM could also tap into the smugglers' network of aircraft and secret landing strips.
(This story has been corrected in paragraph 4 to show that Osama Bin Laden is the former leader of al Qaeda and removes reference of his hiding place)
http://news.yahoo.com/norway-attack-likely-suspected-groups-155053903.html
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Norway home of cleric Mullah Krekar attacked
Unidentified gunmen have fired shots at the home of Mullah Krekar, the Kurdish founder of the radical Islamic group, Ansar al-Islam, in Norway.
The cleric was not hurt, but his son-in-law was taken to hospital having been shot in the arm, police said.
Mr Krekar, 53, was in the fourth-floor Oslo flat with four others when the attack happened early on Monday.
Ansar al-Islam, which is based in northern Iraq, is regarded by the UN and US as a terrorist organisation.
Witnesses saw two people fleeing shortly after the shooting, and a car was set alight in a nearby car park, but it was not clear whether these event were linked, police said.
A neighbour said he heard three shots.
"Lots of police arrived quickly and took the entire family away under heavy security," he told the AFP news agency.
Mr Krekar's lawyer, Brynjar Meling, told Norwegian television broadcaster NRK the gunmen had tried to break into the flat before opening fire in what he called "a well-planned and professional attack".
He did not accuse any specific group of being behind the attack, but said that the cleric frequently received death threats.
Mullah Krekar - born Najm Faraj Ahmad - has lived in the suburb of eastern Oslo with his family since 1991 when he was granted refugee status in Norway.
From this base he founded Ansar al-Islam, which Washington blames for attacks on coalition forces in Iraq. In 2006, the UN added the cleric to a list of people believed to have links with al-Qaeda. The Kurdish cleric says he stepped down as leader of Ansar al-Islam in 2002 and denies any links with al-Qaeda.
In 2004, Norwegian authorities said there was not enough evidence to charge him with conspiracy in an alleged plot to murder political rivals in Iraq. He remains in Norway despite a deportation order because of the security situation in Iraq.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8478660.stm
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/norway-bomb-attack-suspicion-falls/d/5087