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October 30, 2005
France: Islamists Smuggled Two Missiles Into Europe
An Islamic terror group has smuggled two surface-to-air missiles into Europe, in a plan to shoot down planes at a French airport, states the Telegraph. French anti-terror sources, originally quote in Le Figaro claim that the Russian SA-18 Grouse missiles were puchased from Chechens in the Caucasus, and were smuggled through Georgia and Turkey into the EU. The current whereabouts of the missiles is not known.
The French anti-terror investigators learned of the missile plot while interrogating a Jordanian al-Qaeda operative, who was close to al-Zarqawi. The man, Adnan Muhammad Sadik, aka Abu Atiya, is now in the custody of Jordanian authorities. He is thought to have been al-Qaeda's chief in the Caucasus, and trained foreign mujahideen who then returned to their countries of origin, to set up sleeper cells.
Abu Atiya claims that one group, known as the "Chechen network" returned to France with the SA-18 missiles, and chemical toxins, such as ricin, cyanide and botulin. Some of their group had planned to detonate a bomb at a Christmas market in Strasbourg in 2000, and others had links to a conspiracy to blow up Los Angeles airport in 1999.
Most of the group were apprehended in an operation mounted by the DST, the French anti-terror squad in late 2002. Some escaped.
The Pakistan Daily Times yesterday quoted the Le Figaro article, stating that after the missiles arrived, "the terrorists then prepared their plans, vacillating between symbolic targets (the Russian embassy, police stations) and bloody attacks (department stores, the Eiffel Tower...)."
SAM-18 missiles have a target range of up to 5 km (three miles) and can attain altitudes of 3,500 metres. In November 2002 in Mombassa, Kenya, two precursors of the SAM-18, SAM-7 missiles were aimed at an Israeli passenger plane as it left Mombassa, Kenya, but just missed their target.
In 2003 in Iraq, a German-owned freight aircraft was hit by a SAM-7 just after it took off from Baghdad airport. Though hit, the plane circled back to ground and a safe landing.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 30, 2005 1:52 PM
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