Dutch police free Somalis detained after terror alert

Dec 28, 2010, 17:42 GMT

   Amsterdam - All but one of 12 Somalis taken into police custody during a Christmas Eve terrorist crackdown have been released, Dutch prosecutors said Tuesday.

   An investigative judge ruled Tuesday that a 29-year-old man of Somali descent must remain in detention for a further three days, while investigations continue.

   Two Somalis, aged 47 and 44, are still considered suspects but there was not enough evidence to warrant them remaining in custody, prosecutors said.

   There was nothing to link the other nine, aged between 19 and 48, to terrorist activities, prosecutors added.

   Police arrested the 12 men of Somali origin on December 24 in the port city of Rotterdam, following an alert by the secret service, the AIVD.

   Police found no explosives or weapons in raids conducted at the same time as the arrests, despite a warning from the AIVD that a terrorist attack was imminent.

   Authorities declined to confirm a report in the Dutch daily De Telegraaf on Tuesday that the suspects were believed to be planning to shoot down an Apache military helicopter.

   The paper cited a 'reliable source' in AIVD, who said men were targeting the airbase of Gilze-Rijen, in the south of the country.

   The report claimed the men were planning to use a portable rocket launcher, which was to be imported from Belgium, Denmark or another European country.

'Simply put: the only thing they were missing was the equipment to shoot something down,' the security source told the paper.

   There are 85 helicopters stationed at the Gilze-Rijen airbase, many of which have been used in NATO missions in AFghanistan in recent years.

   The shooting-down of one of the helicopters could therefore have significant symbolic importance in the eyes of Islamist terrorists, the report said.