Norway has raised its level of alert after a message attributed to al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri threatening the interests of several Western and Asian countries, officials said on Saturday.| Hummmm...I wonder if Norway's Mullah Krekar (the "spiritual" leader of Ansar al-Islam) did something to anger good ol' Ayman? |
The alert was raised from low to moderate, Joern Holme, the head of Norway's anti-terrorism services, said in a communique. "When Norway is threatened so directly there is every reason to take the threat seriously," he said, cautioning that Zawahiri was a key al-Qaeda chief who could influence other groups. However, he added that "nothing indicates there is any imminent risk of a terrorist act". US intelligence analysts have concluded that the message is authentic. Norway was part of the US-led coalition that ousted the hardline Islamic Taliban militia in Afghanistan and still maintains a small contingent of peacekeeping troops there. It did not join the US-led invasion of Iraq last year, although it sent - and has since withdrawn - collaborators troops to help rebuild the country. Zawahiri, the right hand man of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was last heard in a videotape broadcast by the Qatar-based news channel on September 9 in which he forecast a US defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had previously threatened Norway in a message in May last year. |