Police in the Netherlands say they have foiled plans for a “major” terror attack on a public event.
Seven men aged between 21 and 34 were taken into custody on Thursday by “heavily armed police” in the towns of Arnhem, southeast of Amsterdam, and Weert, near the Belgian border, Sky News reports.
“Three of them, including the ringleader, have previous convictions for attempting to join IS [Islamic State] in Syria,” says English-language site DutchNews.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the suspects “were looking for AK47s, handguns, hand grenades, suicide jackets and the ingredients for a car bomb” for an attack targeting an as-yet-unspecified “event”.
“They had also been looking for training in the use of guns and the suicide jackets,” the department said, adding that “the investigation into the exact target is still ongoing”.
The seven men have been held in isolation and allowed contact only with their lawyers ahead of a first hearing before a court in Rotterdam today, DutchNews reports.
Dutch police had been tracking the 34-year-old Iraqi national accused of leading the cell since April, following a tip-off from the country’s security service.
The investigation was “accelerated” this month in light of evidence that the suspects were getting closer to carrying out their plot, Sky News reports.
According to Dutch national broadcaster NOS, the suspects were in possession of a total of five small firearms between them when arrested.
“They were quite far in their preparations,” Minister for Justice and Security Ferd Grapperhaus told NOS.
“In a sense it is serious, but luckily it’s also good news – a terrorist cell that was plotting an attack has been taken down.”
The terror threat in the Netherlands will remain at its current classification of “substantial”, one level below the maximum risk.
-
Must-see bookshops around the UKThe Week Recommends Lose yourself in beautiful surroundings, whiling away the hours looking for a good book
-
A Nipah virus outbreak in India has brought back Covid-era surveillanceUnder the radar The disease can spread through animals and humans
-
Nasa’s new dark matter mapUnder the Radar High-resolution images may help scientists understand the ‘gravitational scaffolding into which everything else falls and is built into galaxies’
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Normalising relations with the Taliban in AfghanistanThe Explainer The regime is coming in from the diplomatic cold, as countries lose hope of armed opposition and seek cooperation on counterterrorism, counter-narcotics and deportation of immigrants
