The operation prompted comparisons with a Spanish police raid in Madrid last April, when three suspects in the city's March train bombings blew themselves up in their apartment rather than surrender. Spanish papers have said they have uncovered close ties between some suspects in the Madrid bombings and alleged Dutch Islamist networks. The Dutch daily De Volkskrant said yesterday the inquiry into Van Gogh's murder was focused on an unnamed Syrian who is said to serve as the link between a number of terrorist cells in the Netherlands. According to the paper, up to 200 extremists, including former combatants in Afghanistan and Chechnya, are living in the country.More than a dozen mosques, churches and schools in the Netherlands have been hit in tit-for-tat arson attacks since the November 2 killing. An Islamic school in Eindhoven was bombed on Monday night, and another in Uden was burned down early yesterday. The words "Theo RIP" and a "white power" sign were scrawled on the walls. Also on Tuesday, a little-known Islamist group threatened vengeance against the Netherlands if the attacks on Muslim buildings did not stop. The traditionally tolerant Netherlands is home to almost a million Muslims, about 6% of the population.
Witnesses said police had asked the suspects in yesterday's raid to surrender, but the men replied with shouted threats and gunfire. "I saw one policeman crumble to the ground and another was dragged away to safety," said Sylvia Cordia, a neighbour. Scores of police moved into the neighbourhood, sealing off several blocks. The immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, said Van Gogh's murder "raises doubts, doubts about whether we have been too lax. Natives and immigrants in the Netherlands cannot look away and excuse radicalism, but must reject it and act against it." She added: "The suspect carried documents on him that show clearly he was driven by the same evil power that was behind the attacks on New York and Madrid: the all-destroying hatred of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism."