December 11, 2008

BELGIUM: Terming them the “Belgian branch of the al-Qaeda” and “the most important anti-terrorism operation in the country”, the authorities in Belgium arrested 14 suspected terrorists, including a jehadi who was allegedly planning a suicide attack, last week. Sixteen raids were executed by 242 police officers in Brussels and in the city of Liege. Three of the suspects had travelled to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to participate in terrorist training camps. Two returned to Belgium several months ago and started surveillance operations for the planned attack.

August 5, 2008

WASHINGTON: An American-trained Pakistani neuroscientist with allegedly ties to operatives of the al-Qaeda has been charged with trying to kill American soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan. Aafia Siddiqui disappeared while visiting her parents’ in Karachi in 2003. Siddiqui was in Pakistan until she was detained by Afghan authorities and has links to at least two top al-Quaeda members.

May 22, 2008

EXETER, UK: Muslim convert Nicky Reilly, a mentally ill young man who changed his name to Mohammed Rasheed and tried to blow himself up in a shopping centre in Exeter, admitted he had been groomed from Pakistan over the Internet.

January 2008

BIRMINGHAM: Parviz Khan, who pleaded guilty in February to plotting to kidnap and execute a British soldier in Birmingham, was accused to have made a number of trips to supply equipment to the al-Qaeda in Pakistan before returning to set about his attack.

July 11, 2007

Four men convicted of the failed July 21 bomb plot in London have been jailed for life. Muktar Ibrahim, 29,(shown) Yassin Omar, 26, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, and Hussain Osman, 28, were found guilty by the jury. The judge, Justice Fulford, said the failed attacks were clearly connected with the bombings that killed 52 people in London two weeks earlier.

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