The Latest from National Terror Alert Response Center

Terrorists Targeted England Hot Spots Posted: 11 Apr 2009 01:36 AM PDT With terror attacks planned for as early as this symbolic four-day Easter holiday weekend in England, Muslim terrorists who used student visas to enter the country had identified crowded shopping malls and nightclubs as likely targets as they sought to maximize casualties, according to counter-terrorism sources. Police are continuing to search 10 properties across the north-west of England in connection with an alleged planned terror bomb attack. They have found pictures of popular Manchester shopping centres and a nightclub, the BBC has learned. Twelve men - 11 of them Pakistani, and most of them students - are still being questioned over the alleged plot. Gordon Brown and Pakistan’s president are “committed to working together” to combat terror, says Downing Street. Although the police previously insisted there was no intelligence pointing to any specific targets, sources have told the BBC photographs of four popular Manchester locations were recovered during searches. These were the Arndale and Trafford Centre shopping complexes, Birdcage nightclub and St Ann’s Square. On Thursday, security staff at the Trafford Centre and officials at Manchester Arndale said they had not been informed of any threat. An Arndale spokesman said: “Both Manchester Arndale and the The Birdcage will be operating as normal over the Easter weekend.” Read Full Article This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information. Share this post

Terror Warning In Mumbai Posted: 11 Apr 2009 01:21 AM PDT The federal intelligence agencies on Thursday put the Mumbai police on a high state of alert informing them that militants of Al-Qaeda were planning to attack the Saudi Arabian consulate in Mumbai and that there is high possibility of Saudi aircraft being hijacked from Indian airports. A senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arab News yesterday that the alert were sounded after the interception of communications between militant organizations saying that some Al-Qaeda militants have infiltrated into the country and were likely to carry out terrorist acts against the Saudi interests in Mumbai. The Maharashtra state government has put maximum security around the Saudi consulate, Saudi Arabian Airlines office, the city airport and other business offices of Saudi Arabia in the city. The intelligence department and the city cops in plainclothes were patrolling the areas where the Saudi consulate and the Saudi Arabian Airline offices are located, said another police official. Source This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information. Share this post

Al-Qaeda Claims S Korean Convoy Attack Posted: 11 Apr 2009 12:53 AM PDT An al-Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility for a suicide attack on a convoy carrying the South Korean ambassador in Yemen last month. In a statement posted on a website on Friday, ‘al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’ claimed responsibility for the attack, boasting that it was a ‘well-planned’ operation which demonstrates the ‘incapacity’ of the Yemeni security forces. It also accused the Yemeni Foreign Ministry of trying to ‘hide the number of losses in the operation’. The authenticity of the statement could not be confirmed, a US-based monitoring group said. Korean forces, who were investigating an earlier bombing that killed four of their compatriots in Yemen, were attacked on their way to Sanaa international airport on March 18. The bomber apparently missed his target by triggering his explosive belt seconds after the convoy passed by, leaving no casualties behind. Yemen is considered an al-Qaeda stronghold and has witnessed a number of attacks on tourist sites, foreign missions and oil installations in the past few years. Source This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information. Share this post

Turkey Police Detain 30 Suspects In Al-Qaeda Sweep Posted: 11 Apr 2009 12:50 AM PDT Turkish anti-terror police Thursday detained 30 people on suspicion of belonging to al-Qaeda, the Anatolia news agency reported. The suspects, rounded up in simultaneous operations in several districts in the western city of Eskisehir, were being questioned by police, the report said. Police weren’t immediately available for comment. Last month, a Turkish newspaper reported that Ankara had received U.S. intelligence that al-Qaeda militants could be plotting attacks on foreign targets in Turkey. A Turkish cell of al-Qaeda was held responsible for truck bombs against two synagogues, the U.K. consulate, and a U.K. bank in Istanbul in 2003, which killed 63 people and Left hundreds injured. Seven men were jailed for life over the bombings in 2007, among them a Syrian national who masterminded and financed the attacks. via Source This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information. Share this post

Iraq Car Bombing Kills 5 U.S. Soldiers Posted: 11 Apr 2009 12:42 AM PDT A truck bombing in northern Iraq killed five U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi policemen today, making it the deadliest attack on U.S. soldiers in 13 months—and adding to concerns that violence in some parts of the country is on the upswing just as the United States tries to begin withdrawing from the country. The attack, which took place at the Iraqi National Police Headquarters in Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, comes on the heels of a particularly bloody few days. Most of the violence had been focused in Baghdad, where more than 50 people were killed in bombings this week. One of those attacks took place just hours before a surprise visit by President Barack Obama, who stopped in Iraq on his way back from Europe and discussed his planned drawdown with U.S. commanders. “Overall, violence continues to be down. There’s been movement on important political questions,” the president told reporters on the stop. “But we have been reminded that there’s more work to do.” Source This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information. Share this post

Austrian Al-Qaeda Cell Watched For 3 years Posted: 11 Apr 2009 12:33 AM PDT The Austrian public prosecutor’s office has reportedly been investigating an Austrian cell of worldwide terror network Al-Qaeda for three years. The magazine News will have a report about that in its edition that goes on sale tomorrow (Thurs) based on documents allegedly in the possession of the Office for Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism (BVT). The magazine claims US officials informed their Austrian counterparts at the end of 2005 that Austrian citizen Abdulrahmen H., born in Mödling, Lower Austria in 1983, and four others had trained as para-militaries at an Al-Qaeda camp in Pakistan from August to October 2005. News said Abdulrahmen, the head of the Austrian Al-Qaeda cell, had been killed along the Afghan-Pakistani border and another cell member had died in Afghanistan. The magazine added three other cell members were abroad, one in prison in Tunisia. News also reported BVT investigators had questioned a former Al-Qaeda member in October 2007 in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina about the training of Austrian cell members at Al-Qaeda camps. The magazine added that, according to the charge against German terror suspect Aleem Nasir, Abdulrahman H. had trained at explosives expert Nasir’s “Mir Ali” camp in Pakistan. Source This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information. Share this post

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