Denmark: 9 arrested in terrorism case

Danish Justice Minister Lene Espersen told Danish television TV2 the terrorist case was "the most serious in the country".

Authorities provided no details on the target of the attacks, but said a police raid overnight had uncovered "materials" for the production of explosives.

The sting comes a month after British police uncovered a plot to blow up several US-bound airliners using liquid explosives. In October 2005, another Danish anti-terrorism operation led to the arrest of seven young Muslims in Copenhagen.

The identity of the new detainees was not revealed, but authorities said they were aged 18 to 33 and arrested during a police raid overnight in the heavily immigrant-populated neighborhood of Vollsmose in the town of Odense.

Espersen told Danish news agency Ritzau that "most of those arrested were Danish citizens", adding that she was "concerned that Danes were preparing a terrorist attack in the country."

PET chief Lars Findsen said in a statement that the arrests took place without incident after a lengthy period of surveillance.

He said PET decided to "intervene now" because it was "difficult to determine at what stage the preparations were."

'Arrests did not come as a surprise'

"The PET's primary mission is to thwart and prevent terrorist acts, and the (intelligence) service decided it was time to go ahead with these arrests now after receiving information indicating that some people in the group were preparing a terrorist act," Findsen said.

Abu Bashar, an imam in the Vollsmose neighborhood who knows several of the suspects personally, said the arrests did not come as a surprise, and that he felt the alleged terrorist attacks were linked to Denmark's participation in the war in

Iraq.

"I'm afraid that there will be a terrorist attack in Denmark because there are Danish soldiers deployed in Iraq, and I'm afraid of what (terrorist organization) al-Qaeda may do if Denmark doesn't withdraw its troops," he told Danish news agency Ritzau.

A staunch ally of the United States, Denmark has some 470 troops stationed in Basra, in southern Iraq, under British command.

The intelligence service said meanwhile it had been in contact with Muslim community officials "to inform them of the situation", as relations remain tense in the wake of the Mohammed cartoons row sparked in Denmark earlier this year.

Several of the suspects were to appear before a judge on Tuesday to be placed in detention.

In October 2005 Danish police arrested seven young Muslims, aged 16 to 22 and including one woman, in Copenhagen who were suspected of plotting terrorist attacks.

Four of them, of Bosnian, Palestinian, Syrian-Palestinian and Moroccan origin, were charged last month in Copenhagen with plotting attacks in Europe. The three others were released.

According to Danish authorities, the four men are linked to two accomplices arrested in Bosnia, a Swede originally from Serbia-Montenegro and a Dane originally from Turkey, now jailed in Sarajevo.

The pair has been accused of terrorism and illegal possession of weapons and explosives. Their trial opened in July in Sarajevo.

Meanwhile, the four in Denmark have been charged "for having, together with the two people detained in Bosnia, procured weapons and explosives with the aim of committing terrorist acts" in Europe.

The quartet has denied the charges during questioning. No date has been set for their trial.