Lefty Wilbury
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- Nov 4, 2003
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...rr29.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/29/ixworld.html
Terror cell 'smuggled missiles into Europe'
By Henry Samuel in Paris
(Filed: 29/10/2005)
An Islamic terror cell has smuggled two surface-to-air missiles into Europe in a plot to shoot down planes at one of France's main airports, it was claimed yesterday.
French and Algerian extremists with links to al-Qa'eda bought the Russian SA-18 Grouse missiles from Chechens in 2002 and smuggled them via Georgia and Turkey, according to French anti-terror sources quoted in Le Figaro.
Both missiles and several of the extremists are reportedly still at large.
French anti-terrorism investigators learned of the missile terror plan while interrogating a Jordanian al-Qa'eda operative close to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the Islamic terror group in Iraq.
Adnan Muhammad Sadik, alias Abu Atiya, is now being held by the Jordanian authorities.
He is believed to have been al-Qa'eda's chief in the Caucasus and responsible for training foreign "holy warriors" - many of whom returned to their countries of origin to set up sleeper cells.
According to Abu Atiya, one such group, the so-called "Chechen network", returned to France with the missiles and chemical and biological agents such as botulin, ricin and cyanide.
Some of its members had allegedly been involved in a plan to explode a bomb during a Christmas market in Strasbourg in 2000.
Others were linked to a conspiracy to blow up Los Angeles airport in 1999.
In 2002 the group wavered between attacking a symbolic target such as Russia's embassy in Paris, to punish its Chechen policies, or a higher profile location, such as the Eiffel Tower.
Before homing in on a preferred target, most of the group was arrested in a swoop by the French terrorist brigade, the DST, in two Paris suburbs late in 2002. But some escaped.
Terror cell 'smuggled missiles into Europe'
By Henry Samuel in Paris
(Filed: 29/10/2005)
An Islamic terror cell has smuggled two surface-to-air missiles into Europe in a plot to shoot down planes at one of France's main airports, it was claimed yesterday.
French and Algerian extremists with links to al-Qa'eda bought the Russian SA-18 Grouse missiles from Chechens in 2002 and smuggled them via Georgia and Turkey, according to French anti-terror sources quoted in Le Figaro.
Both missiles and several of the extremists are reportedly still at large.
French anti-terrorism investigators learned of the missile terror plan while interrogating a Jordanian al-Qa'eda operative close to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the Islamic terror group in Iraq.
Adnan Muhammad Sadik, alias Abu Atiya, is now being held by the Jordanian authorities.
He is believed to have been al-Qa'eda's chief in the Caucasus and responsible for training foreign "holy warriors" - many of whom returned to their countries of origin to set up sleeper cells.
According to Abu Atiya, one such group, the so-called "Chechen network", returned to France with the missiles and chemical and biological agents such as botulin, ricin and cyanide.
Some of its members had allegedly been involved in a plan to explode a bomb during a Christmas market in Strasbourg in 2000.
Others were linked to a conspiracy to blow up Los Angeles airport in 1999.
In 2002 the group wavered between attacking a symbolic target such as Russia's embassy in Paris, to punish its Chechen policies, or a higher profile location, such as the Eiffel Tower.
Before homing in on a preferred target, most of the group was arrested in a swoop by the French terrorist brigade, the DST, in two Paris suburbs late in 2002. But some escaped.
