Balkans seen as terrorist training ground
Dec. 1, 2005 at 10:42AM
Recent arrests confirm the belief that parts of the Balkans are becoming a
launching pad for terrorist attacks in Europe, authorities say.
One example came in an apartment occupied by
an underground group aiming to blow up the British Embassy in Sarajevo, Western
intelligence officials told The Washington Post.
There they found explosives, rifles, other
arms and a videotape pledging vengeance for the "brothers" killed fighting
Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, the newspaper said. Islamic radicals
reportedly want to create cells of so-called white al-Qaida, non-Arab members
who can avoid racial profiling used to spot potential terrorists.
Parts of the Balkans, long a freeway for
smugglers and stuck in lawless limbo after years of war in the 1990s, are said
to be ripe recruitment territory for Middle East radicals.
Though nominally united under the 10-year-old
Dayton agreement that ended ethnic warfare, Bosnia is still divided among
Muslim, Croat and Serb population areas, and many Muslims are reported
embittered and restive, the Post said
