Al-Qaeda Cells in Bosnia Survive Nato Raids

May 6 2002
By Judy Dempsey, Diplomatic Correspondent, in Brussels

Al-Qaeda is still operating in Bosnia even though Nato has disrupted much of its communications, arrested several of its members and carried out deportations.

Lord Robertson, Nato's secretary-general, said there was "no assumption" that al-Qaeda had "gone away. We are still on alert. We know there are people out there, planning, and plotting", he said in an interview at his headquarters in Brussels.

Nato has been more than cautious in releasing details of raids on alleged al-Qaeda networks in Sarajevo or other cities in the federation, let alone spelling out the extent to which al-Qaeda still poses a threat.

Last week, however, Major Scott Lundy, a spokesman for Sfor, the Nato-led international military force in Bosnia, said US Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had raided a Bosnian-linked charity in Chicago and arrested Enaam Arnout, its executive director.

"There is a lot of ongoing work in Bosnia and elsewhere," said Lord Robertson. "The detection is still going on. People are being apprehended. Some of the cells have been broken up in Bosnia. We continue to track them, find them, arrest them and deal with them."

The latest raid followed months of investigating Mr Arnout's links to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda's network in Bosnia.

In Sarajevo Sfor and the Bosnian police said they found weapons, military manuals and state security documents in the offices of Bosanska Idealna Futura (BIF). BIF had taken over the local operations of the Benevolence International Foundation, whose executive director was Syrian-born Mr Arnout. "Without going into detail, police found evidence of direct communications between Mr Arnout and Osama bin Laden," said Mr Lundy.

Many Islamic networks and organisations blossomed during the Bosnia war, some of them backed by Saudi Arabia. Its members were mainly recruited from the several thousand mujahideen fighters who joined the Bosnian army to fight against Serb and Croat armies during the early 1990s. But one condition of the 1996 Dayton agreement, which ended the wars in Bosnia, was that the mujahideen quit the army and leave Bosnia altogether. Some stayed and settled down but the exact number remains vague.

Others found work in Saudi-backed charities, which Sfor and the Bosnian police raided earlier this year.

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