Sweden, Norway arrest 6 in terror raids

[David]

AP


STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Swedish and Norwegian authorities cracked down on terror financing on Thursday, arresting six people in what Swedish investigators said were coordinated raids in Stockholm and Oslo.

Three men arrested early Thursday in the Swedish capital were suspected of funneling money to terror organizations in Somalia, Prosecutor Ronnie Jacobsson told The Associated Press.

The men — all Swedish citizens — also faced suspicions of preparing terrorist acts, which Jacobsson said "could consist of financially promoting a terror crime."

Just minutes before the Swedish operation was announced, Norway's police intelligence agency PST said it had arrested three people in separate locations in Oslo on suspicion of financing terror.

It did not reveal their nationalities. Newspaper VG reported on its Web site that they were Somali immigrants, but did not cite its sources.

Norwegian media said police seized computer equipment in raids of Internet cafes in Oslo later Thursday, but it was not immediately clear whether the operations were linked to the arrests.

Sweden's SAPO security police said the arrests in Norway and Sweden were coordinated, but would not give details.

Both Norway and Sweden have been spared violent terror acts, but authorities in both countries have voiced concern about terrorists or terror financiers operating out of Scandinavia.

In 2005, two Iraqis were sentenced to prison in Sweden for collecting and transferring money to terrorists Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the late leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

SAPO wrote in a report in November that "similar activities are still being conducted in Sweden."

Agency spokesman Jakob Larsson told the AP that the risk of terror attacks in Sweden remains low.

"However, we have said that there could be people here who sympathize with and support terrorist organizations in other countries," he said, adding: "It is not in any way more common here than in other countries."

In a report earlier this month, Norway's PST said that "support operations in Norway are primarily in the form of money transfers to people or groups abroad that are believed to be connected to extreme Islamist organizations."

It also said that violence by Islamic extremists will pose a significant challenge to Norwegian security in coming years, partly because of the Nordic nation's participation in NATO-led peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan.

Norway closed its embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Feb. 10 after being alerted to a terrorism plot. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kristin Melsom said the embassy reopened Wednesday.

The threat followed a Jan. 15 attack by militants on a Kabul hotel in which a reporter for the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet was killed. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was also there, but later said he did not think he was the target.