<p>Denmark's PET intelligence service said yesterday five suspects had been arrested, preventing an imminent assault on the Copenhagen offices of the Jyllands-Posten daily in which as many staff as possible would have been killed.<br /><br />Four men were arrested in Denmark while a spokeswoman for Swedish intelligence agency Saepo said a fifth was arrested in Sweden in connection with the same international plot.<br /><br />"It is our sense based on intelligence that this is a militant Islamic group with links to international terrorist networks," PET head Jakob Scharf told reporters.<br />They were planning an attack "within the next few days", the agency said in a statement.<br /><br />In an email to Danish news agency Ritzau, Danish Justice Minister Lars Barfoed said the arrests prevented what could have been the most serious attack to ever occur in Denmark.<br /><br />Scharf told the news conference "the plan was to try to gain access to the location of Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen and to try to carry out a Mumbai-style attack".<br /><br />The 2008 attacks in Mumbai saw 10 heavily armed gunmen storm three luxury hotels, the city's main railway station, a popular tourist restaurant and a Jewish centre. The attacks, centered around the luxury Taj Mahal Palace hotel, left 166 people dead.<br /><br />"These arrests have successfully stopped an imminent terror attack, where several of the suspects... were going to force their way into the (building which houses Jyllands-Posten) in Copenhagen and kill as many people as possible," Scharf was quoted as saying in the PET statement.<br /><br />Yesterday's arrests took place after a long investigation led in collaboration with Sweden's Saepo, PET said.<br /><br />The man arrested in Stockholm is a 37-year-old Swede of Tunisian background.<br /><br />Danish intelligence said the four men arrested in Denmark, in the Herlev and Greve suburbs of Copenhagen, were a 44-year-old Tunisian, a 29-year-old Swede born in Lebanon, a 30-year-old Swede and a 26-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker.<br /><br />The first three were all living in Sweden and travelled to Denmark overnight. According to Jyllands-Posten's online edition, they travelled in a car rented in the Stockholm suburb of Kista.<br /><br />Also at the Copenhagen press conference, Saepo head Anders Danielsson said the men based in Sweden had been under surveillance.<br /><br />He added Saepo knew there were weapons in the car used for the trip to Copenhagen.<br />Jyllands-Posten published a dozen cartoons in 2005 of the Prophet Mohammed that triggered violent and sometimes deadly protests around the world.<br /><br />"The arrests underscore the serious terror threat against Denmark and especially against institutions and people connected to the cartoon case," Scharf said Wednesday.<br /><br />Lars Munch, the chief executive of Jyllands-Posten's parent company, said the company had "great confidence in the police and intelligence service efforts to protect us".</p>
<p>Denmark's PET intelligence service said yesterday five suspects had been arrested, preventing an imminent assault on the Copenhagen offices of the Jyllands-Posten daily in which as many staff as possible would have been killed.<br /><br />Four men were arrested in Denmark while a spokeswoman for Swedish intelligence agency Saepo said a fifth was arrested in Sweden in connection with the same international plot.<br /><br />"It is our sense based on intelligence that this is a militant Islamic group with links to international terrorist networks," PET head Jakob Scharf told reporters.<br />They were planning an attack "within the next few days", the agency said in a statement.<br /><br />In an email to Danish news agency Ritzau, Danish Justice Minister Lars Barfoed said the arrests prevented what could have been the most serious attack to ever occur in Denmark.<br /><br />Scharf told the news conference "the plan was to try to gain access to the location of Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen and to try to carry out a Mumbai-style attack".<br /><br />The 2008 attacks in Mumbai saw 10 heavily armed gunmen storm three luxury hotels, the city's main railway station, a popular tourist restaurant and a Jewish centre. The attacks, centered around the luxury Taj Mahal Palace hotel, left 166 people dead.<br /><br />"These arrests have successfully stopped an imminent terror attack, where several of the suspects... were going to force their way into the (building which houses Jyllands-Posten) in Copenhagen and kill as many people as possible," Scharf was quoted as saying in the PET statement.<br /><br />Yesterday's arrests took place after a long investigation led in collaboration with Sweden's Saepo, PET said.<br /><br />The man arrested in Stockholm is a 37-year-old Swede of Tunisian background.<br /><br />Danish intelligence said the four men arrested in Denmark, in the Herlev and Greve suburbs of Copenhagen, were a 44-year-old Tunisian, a 29-year-old Swede born in Lebanon, a 30-year-old Swede and a 26-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker.<br /><br />The first three were all living in Sweden and travelled to Denmark overnight. According to Jyllands-Posten's online edition, they travelled in a car rented in the Stockholm suburb of Kista.<br /><br />Also at the Copenhagen press conference, Saepo head Anders Danielsson said the men based in Sweden had been under surveillance.<br /><br />He added Saepo knew there were weapons in the car used for the trip to Copenhagen.<br />Jyllands-Posten published a dozen cartoons in 2005 of the Prophet Mohammed that triggered violent and sometimes deadly protests around the world.<br /><br />"The arrests underscore the serious terror threat against Denmark and especially against institutions and people connected to the cartoon case," Scharf said Wednesday.<br /><br />Lars Munch, the chief executive of Jyllands-Posten's parent company, said the company had "great confidence in the police and intelligence service efforts to protect us".</p>