Dutch detain two Yemeni passengers on terror suspicion

REUTERS - Dutch authorities detained two Yemeni men at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on suspicion of terrorist conspiracy after a tip-off from the United States, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The pair, en route from Chicago to Yemen, were detained on Monday and a decision on bringing charges would be made in the next few days, the Dutch prosecution service said.

“The men are being held in custody on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a terrorist criminal act,” the prosecution service said in a statement.

The Yemenis arrived in Amsterdam from Chicago O’Hare on United flight 908 early on Monday and were detained on the plane after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security alerted Dutch authorities to suspicious items found in their luggage in the United States.

These included mobile phones found taped together, and one phone taped to a plastic bottle. The phones were seized in the United States.

ABC News cited officials as saying three large knives were found in the men’s luggage and that one of them was carrying $7,000 in cash.

“As far as we know security has not been jeopardised,” a spokeswoman with the Dutch counter-terrorism agency NCTb said.

She said Dutch authorities were in contact with the United States and that the matter was being taken “very seriously”. A lot of details still needed to be clarified, she said.