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Latest update: 13/12/2010
- al Qaeda - Stockholm - Sweden - terrorism
Swedish police probe suspected 'terrorist' attacks
Swedish investigators said Sunday they were treating two explosions that rocked Stockholm over the weekend as suspected terrorist attacks as an al Qaeda-linked website claimed that one of its militants was responsible for the blasts.
AFP – Sweden on Sunday probed two bomb blasts that killed a person in central Stockholm as a "terrorist crime", as an Al-Qaeda-linked website claimed one of its militants had carried out the suicide attack.
Saturday's explosions -- a suspected suicide attack and separate blast -- targeted Christmas shoppers in a busy pedestrian quarter of the Swedish capital. Two people were also injured.
"We are opening an investigation into a terrorist crime," Anders Thornberg, head of the security unit of domestic intelligence Saepo, said Sunday. "We suspect that it was a suicide attack."
The man who died may have been the attacker, Thornberg added, but noted: "We will not draw conclusions too quickly."
"If this was a suicide attack, it will be the first in Sweden," he noted.
Meanwhile an Islamist website called Shoumoukh al-Islam published a photograph of the man it said was the attacker.
"It is our brother, mujahid Taymour Abdel Wahab, who carried out the martyrdom operation in Stockholm," it said. The photograph showed a man in dark glasses and Western clothes.
The same photo was published in Swedish newspaper Expressen on Sunday with the face blurred. An official for the paper's photo department told AFP that there was "quite enough evidence" to say that it was the picture of the attacker.
But a Saepo spokeswoman, Carolina Ekeus, refused to comment on the Islamist website's claim.
About 10 minutes before Saturday's blasts, the TT news agency and Saepo received an email, which included audio files in both Swedish and Arabic, in which the suspected attacker addresses "Sweden and the Swedish people."
"Our acts will speak for themselves," TT quoted the message as saying. "Now your children, your daughters and your sisters will die as our brothers, our sisters and our children are dying."
The message referred to the Swedish military presence in Afghanistan and to Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has been the object of constant threats since his drawing of the Muslim prophet with the body of a dog was first published in 2007.
Overnight, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt already described the events as a terror attack on his Twitter feed.
But Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt later cautioned against drawing hasty conclusions.
"It's completely unacceptable for this to happen in Sweden but a lot of questions still have to be answered before we can draw any conclusions," he said.
"Three things happened last night, a car exploded ... a man died and Saepo and (news agency) TT received a message threatening Sweden. The three events are not confirmed as having any link to each other," he told reporters.
He slammed the bombings as "unwanted and unacceptable," pointing out that Sweden is "open society which has shown it is willing that people with different beliefs and backgrounds and Gods can live side by side with each other in an open society and democracy that functions well."
Saepo -- which is now working under the direction of Sweden's chief prosecutor Tomas Lindstroem -- took charge of the probe at 9:00 am (0800 GMT) Sunday, when the attacks were classified as a terrorist crime, Thornberg said.
He said two people were injured when a car packed with gas canisters exploded around 5:00 pm Saturday in the busy Drottninggatan shopping street. A second blast occurred shortly afterwards about three hundred metres (yards) away, killing a man.
Swedish media said the man had been found with a backpack containing six "pipe bombs," only one of which exploded, injuring him critically in the stomach area.
A bag full of nails was also found near the dead man, media reported.
"The fact that the device also contained fragments shows that the intention was to mutilate and kill," bomb disposal expert Bo Janzon told the TT news agency.
Despite that, Stockholmers carried on business as usual on Sunday, and Drottinggatan was full of Christmas shoppers.
"We haven't been affected, we don't feel scared," said 28-year-old Anton Ziden, who was shopping with a friend.
In the English version of the e-mail sent to TT and Saepo, obtained by AFP, the man addresses his wife and children, and apologizes for lying to them.
"It wasn't easy to keep secrets from you, my travels to the Middle East wasn't for business, it was for jihad," he says. "Accept me as a martyr, and my request from you is to pray."
"And to all hidden mujaheddin in Europe and especially Sweden it is now the time to strike, even if you have only a knife to strike with, and I know that you have more than that," the message ends.
Germany and Turkey on Sunday condemned the Stockholm blasts.
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Comments (19)
stockholm bombing
i admire the manner in which the swedish prime minister expresses or is handleling the situation at hand .low press profile ,scientific investigation(minus politics),track perpertrators,restain and punish.this type of activity should not b glorified in the press,lending a venue to any one who is clinicaly disturbed or totaly frusterated with their life.
swedish attack
As quoted by a Canadian talk-radio host today: That suicide bomber had parts all over the place like an Ikea project, but without the Allan wrench
No One Is Immune
No one is immune from attacks by these nut cases. Not even Sweden. One day they will have nukes. What then?
Really?
I'd let this one go if I were them. They trained HIM? Maybe they are losing after all if this is the best jihadist they can find. To think how much time it took to convince him that seventy virgins would be waiting for him after he blew himself up. Moran!
Sweden's terror incident
One thing can be sure about Sweden's terror incident. Europe has cells that effectively carry out their pathetic missions, in contrast thus far,barring 9/11, their ability to do so in the U.S.. It seems intelligence agencies do have their limits to diffuse "effective cells" that are expedient, "under the radar" and committed. In our country we have been fortunate thus far to uncover "bumpkinlike cells", or those we string along like the young man "puppetted" along for two years in the recent Oregon incident. I just hope that our intelligence agencies can step up to the plate when it comes to dealing with those "cells" that have bonafide substance and resources to carry out their idelogical cowardly attacks.
Sharia law
7/10/10 Sunday Times, UK: Islamic law has been officially adopted in Britain, with Sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.
And this is the goal of all Muslims, Sharia law worldwide, even if it takes a thousand years.
8/09 Bosnia’s muslim spiritual leader Mustafa Ceric declared Christian Serbian Muslim-majority territory boarding Montenegro as Muslim homelands.
Yes, the same Muslims we saved from ethnic cleansing by bombing Christian Serbs in the 90's are now claiming more Serbian land. It took them 500 years, and they are winning.
Natural Selection
Annother quaeda member blows himself up.
Don't jump to conclusions
Just because a muslim has detonated explosives (a car bomb) aimed at killing innocent Swedes and Al Qaeda has taken responsibility, that doesn't mean it was a terrorist attack. Islam is a peaceful religion.
Terrorism
Unfortunately, perhaps the Swedes and other Europeans who are quick to condemn Israel will better appreciate the terrorist threat of Radical Islam that targets innocent people and which can occur anywhere. It is a fundamental clash of ideology which threatens the West in which religious sanction is given for mass murder and in which individual life is becoming increasingly meaningless.
bright boy
Quality Al-Q training shines through again. These little muhma wannabees would be dangerous with half a brain.
Ironic
So the bomber was the only one killed, and that's something to brag about?!
Swedish Terror
There were some accidents. They don't have acts of terror there because they respect and understand the act of those terrorists. The terrorist would make bombs there but carries them to America. They only hate American, not Swedish, the peace loving people.
If it was a terrorist attack,
If it was a terrorist attack, the man didn't seem to be very skilled at it. I would think those who plotted this would be embarrassed by their brother's blunder. Sick people in this world who want to harm innocents at Christmas time. My sympathy to the Swedish people.
Open Society
"He slammed the bombings as "unwanted and unacceptable," pointing out that Sweden is "open society which has shown it is willing that people with different beliefs and backgrounds and Gods can live side by side with each other in an open society and democracy that functions well."
Maybe the Swedes should rethink that world-view.
Muslims
When is the world going to wake up? The only terriorists that I know of around the world are muslims. We need racial profiling at airports and other places of transportation. I am tired of organzations like CAIR. This is nothing more that more than a Radical Muslim mouthpiece. It is time to start deporting muslims and possibly dropping bombs on places like Mecca.
Dumb terrorist
The terrorist must have an idiot to blow himself up. These people have the IQ of a turd.
An al Qaeda-linked website
An al Qaeda-linked website claimed responsibility? How convenient.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in Denial
LOL!!!! Dont jump to any conclusions Sweden because it is possible that Aliens from outerspace killed a man, then set off a few bombs,and then sent threatening transmissions from their mothership!
"Three things happened last night, a car exploded ... a man died and Saepo and (news agency) TT received a message threatening Sweden. The three events are not confirmed as having any link to each other," he told reporters.
terrorist
Welcome to the fight!
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