Terror arrests

last updated 8 January 2015

Amsterdam

Dutch prosecutors have charged seven men with recruiting and financing new members of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaida terror group. The men’s names and nationalities are unknown because their identity documents are false, but they are believed to be of Middle Eastern or North African origin. Prosecutors said the men had lived in the Netherlands for years, organizing a Qaida sleeper cell. “We are convinced that this network was preparing young people to be sent out to fight as jihad warriors,” said justice official Wim de Bruin. But prosecutors have found no link between the seven, arrested in a sweep last week, and four other men who have been charged in the Netherlands with plotting attacks on U.S. interests in Europe.