WoT Police: ISIL attacks thwarted in Kosovo

[Housecarl]

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Police: ISIL attacks thwarted in Kosovo

USA TODAY
Doug Stanglin
36 mins ago

Police in*Kosovo say have arrested 19 people and*thwarted simultaneous Islamic State attacks in Kosovo and neighboring Albania, including a*planned assault on the*Israeli national soccer team during a match.

Police said in a statement Wednesday that the suspects were rounded up over the past 10 days in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia and were planning*“synchronized terror attacks.”

The police said the alleged suspects were*receiving orders from an Islamic State member, Lavdrim Muhaxheri, the self-declared “commander of Albanians in Syria and Iraq.”

Weapons, explosives, ammunition and a drone were seized during the roundup for suspects, according to police.

“They were planning to commit terrorist attacks in Kosovo and also [an attack] against [the] Israeli football team and their fans during the Albania-Israel match,” Kosovo police said in the*statement on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The Nov. 12 match,*part of the qualifying round for the 2018 World Cup group, was moved*from the northern Albanian city of Shkoder to Elbasan, south of the capital, Tirana,*for security reasons, the Associated Press reports. *There was heavy police presence at Saturday's event, but no incidents.

Most of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority are nominally Muslim, but largely secular.*Kosovo, backed by the West, declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

 

[Housecarl]

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ISIS Attack on Israeli National Soccer Team Foiled: Kosovo Cops

News
ISIS Terror
Nov 17 2016, 8:53 am ET

Video

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Simultaneous attacks by ISIS have been foiled — including one targeting the Israeli national soccer team, police in Kosovo said.

According to a statement issued Thursday, 18 people were arrested in Kosovo and six more across both Albania and Macedonia. Police said explosive devices, weapons, electronic equipment and a drone were recovered.

Police said the groups were coordinated by two Albanians who are part of ISIS in Syria.

Albania moved a World Cup qualifying match with Israel on Saturday from the northern city of Shkoder, to a venue near the capital Tirana due to fears of a possible attack by militants.

Reuters quoted a police statement as saying that the cell was "planning to commit terrorist attacks in Kosovo and also [an attack] against the Israeli football team and their fans during the Albania-Israel match." It also referred to "synchronized terrorist attacks."

Police said the suspects were in contact with ISIS member, the self-declared "commander of Albanians in Syria and Iraq," Lavdrim Muhaxheri, from whom they received orders to attack.

At least 200 people have been detained or investigated in Kosovo over their alleged links with ISIS in recent years.

A total of 300 Kosovars went to Syria to fight alongside ISIS militants and more than 50 have been killed there.

International and local security agencies in Kosovo, including NATO mission and the EU police mission, are worried that many of those returning home from combat zones could pose a security threat.

Most of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority are nominally Muslim but overwhelmingly secular.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the West. In 2015 it adopted a law introducing jail sentences of up to 15 years for anyone found guilty of fighting in wars abroad.