NATO said considering Serbia's Wahhabis as Mujahidin, Al-Qa'idah "offshoot"
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - March 22, 2007 Thursday

Text of report by Serbian newspaper Vecernje novosti on 20 March

[Report by "M.A.": "Al-Qa'idah Preparing for Jihad"]

Five members of a terrorist Wahhabi group arrested in the Novi Pazar area are just an offshoot of the Mujahidin and Al-Qa'idah, which are preparing concurrent conflagrations in Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] and the Raska [Sandzak] region.

Vecernje novosti has learned from diplomatic sources close to the international peacekeeping forces in Kosmet that [NATO-led] Kfor [Kosovo Force] and UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] intelligence services informed their governments and the NATO head office to this effect back in late February. They especially stressed that the command of the "New Army of Kosovo" has instructed its followers in Sandzak to prepare for a "decisive battle" and to provoke violence in Sandzak at the same time as an offensive against Serbs is launched in Kosmet and so prevent any interference by Serbia in Kosmet.

How much terrorist groups of the former OVK [Kosovo Liberation Army - KLA; UCK in Albanian] are counting on armed support from Sandzak is evident from a Kfor intelligence report that literally says that "terrorist groups in Kosmet have begun intensively to transfer armaments and military equipment from the territory of Kosmet to Sandzak." It quotes the fact that depots with armament for the extremists in Sandzak are situated on Mt Bajgora in the north of Kosovo (it stretches from Vucitrn to Leposavic). A terrorist organization known as the Bajgora Storm is active in this mountain. [Passage omitted for libel content]

The channel for transferring armament to Mujahidin and Wahhabis goes through Mt Rogozna, along the stretch between Vucja Lokva and the village of Kaljin. A major arms delivery was made by way of this channel in early March. It all happened between the hours of midnight [2300 gmt] and 0300 [0200 gmt]. Under cover of darkness, eight trucks laden with all kinds of armament and explosives and covered with wool carried their cargo from Kaljin village, by way of Batnjak, to Novopazarska Banja spa. There, the cargo was taken over by an Al-Qa'idah group that then transported it through special channels to its bases in Sandzak. Part of the armament and explosives reached its cell on Mt Ninija, where the first group of Islamic warriors was captured.

Kfor intelligence operatives said in their report that the arms cargo was smuggled into Sandzak "with the help of corrupt Serb policemen" and that the Al-Qa'idah cell in Novi Pazar had planned to use the same convoy of trucks to send chemical weaponry - nerve paralysing gases - in the opposite direction, allegedly to be used in an attack on US Camp Bondsteel outside Vitina.

According to this report, Mujahidin and Wahhabis have at least 10 training camps on Sandzak territory and hundreds of followers "prepared to contribute to the struggle of the Muslims in the Balkans."

[Box] 'Islamic Salvation Front' Arrives, too

The Islamic Salvation Front terrorist group was infiltrated into Sandzak two months ago. According to the Kfor intelligence report, this is a religious terrorist organization made up of Arabs from Sudan, Algeria, Palestine, Turkey, and Egypt. It is under the command of a Turkish national and two Bosnian nationals. Active parallel with it is a 20-member group of Islamists from Turkey that have entered Sandzak illegally. They are specialists in chemical warfare.

Source: Vecernje novosti, Belgrade, in Serbian 20 Mar 07

Copyright 2007 British Broadcasting Corporation
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