Belgian police seize 15 suspected Islamic militants in raids

FIFTEEN suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested in Belgium as part of an international investigation.

Belgian federal prosecutor Daniel Bernard yesterday said that the 15 are all foreigners, including Palestinians, Jordanians, Moroccans and Egyptians.

“They have been deprived of their liberty. Some of them will be referred to an examining magistrate,” he told a news conference. Mr Bernard did not immediately draw a link between the arrests and the Madrid bombings in March which killed 191 people.

Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said in Luxembourg that there had been “several people arrested in Belgium in relation to international terrorism”. Meanwhile, Italian anti-terrorist police said they had netted three suspects, including one of the masterminds of the March 11 bombings as part of an investigation involving police in at least two other European countries.

Mr Bernard said there was “no indication” that the 15 arrested suspects were planning an attack in Belgium. But he acknowledged receiving a tip-off from the Italian authorities that they were “implicated in the preparation of an attack, probably abroad”.

That prompted Belgian police to raid several locations around Brussels and the northern city of Antwerp on Sunday.

No arms or explosives were found in the raids, the prosecutor said.

In Madrid, counter-terrorism officials identified the main suspect arrested in Milan as Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, describing him as “one of the masterminds, one of the organisers of the attacks” on March 11. The Spanish interior minister, speaking at an EU meeting, said investigations were continuing in Belgium, Italy, Spain and to a lesser extent in France.

In Belgium in March, anti-terrorist police arrested five people including a suspect wanted over attacks in Casablanca last year.