- Title: NETHERLANDS: THREE POLICE OFFICERS INJURED DURING ANTI-TERROR RAID IN THE HAGUE.
- Date: 10th November 2004
- Summary: (U3) THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS (NOVEMBER 10, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WS: POLICE AND POLICE CAR BEHIND POLICE TAPE. 0.05 2. MV: POLICE OFFICERS. 0.10 3. WS: POLICE VANS AND POLICE IN STREET. 0.15 4. VARIOUS: POLICE OFFICERS TAPING OFF AREA. (2 SHOTS) 0.24 5. WS: ONLOOKERS BEHIND THE POLICE TAPE. 0.30 6. WS: POLICE VANS IN STREET. 0.38 7. MV: POLICE. 0.45 8. WS: MASKED SECURITY OFFICERS. 0.53 9. PAN: POLICE VANS IN STREET. 1.07 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 25th November 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS
- Country: Netherlands
- Reuters ID: LVA4VHDKLIV0HJIS22T1XQ23MPJV
- Story Text: Three Dutch police injured in anti-terror raid.
Three Dutch police were injured on Wednesday
(November 10) when a hand grenade exploded in a raid to
arrest suspects in an ongoing anti-terrorism investigation,
justice officials said.
Officials declined to say whether the operation, which
was continuing with suspects still in a building cordoned
off by police in the Dutch seat of government, was linked
to the murder last week of a filmmaker by a suspected
Islamist extremist.
Chief Justice official Han Moraal told a news
conference that at the request of criminal investigation
branch, an arrest team this morning at 02:45 (0145 GMT)
tried to arrest suspects in an ongoing probe by the crime
squad into terrorism. Moraal also said three police
officers were injured when a hand grenade was thrown at
them. Shots were also fired, he said. An unspecified number
of suspects were still in the building.
Two of the injured officers were in hospital while one
had been allowed to go home, police said.
The raid recalled a police operation in Madrid in April
when three suspects in the March train bombings blew
themselves up after police cornered them in a suburban
apartment. A policeman also died and 11 people were
injured.
Dutch police have arrested 10 people in their
investigation into the killing of film director Theo van
Gogh last week and are still holding six, including the
prime suspect Mohammed B., who has been charged with murder
and suspected links to a terrorist group.
The Netherlands has seen a series of apparent
tit-for-tat attacks since Van Gogh's murder, including an
arson attack on a Muslim school on Tuesday night, where the
words "Theo R.I.P." were scrawled on the walls along with a
"White Power" sign.
A little-known Islamist group threatened on Tuesday to
hit the Netherlands if the attacks on Muslim buildings did
not stop. The country has received several threats from
Islamic militants over the presence of 1,300 of its troops
in Iraq.
Prosecutors declined to comment on Tuesday (November 9)
on media reports that authorities were hunting a Syrian
they suspect of involvement in Van Gogh's murder, threats
against a politician and for planning attacks on government
buildings.
Officials said the airspace over The Hague had been
closed on Wednesday (November 10) amid the ongoing
operation. They sealed off the area after the explosion and
an anti-terrorism unit was on the scene. It was not clear
if anyone had been arrested.
Fire engines and riot police were on the scene.
Journalists were kept away from the building behind a
cordon and houses in the area were evacuated.
At least eight mosques and four churches have been
targeted in arson attacks since Van Gogh was shot and
stabbed as he cycled to work in Amsterdam last week.
A primary school in the southern Dutch village of Uden
was gutted in a blaze on Tuesday (November 8) evening. A
small bomb also damaged a Muslim school in Eindhoven on
Monday.
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk met Dutch Muslim
groups on Tuesday to discuss ways to halt the escalating
tension. The Netherlands is home to almost a million
Muslims, or about 6 percent of the population.
Van Gogh enraged Muslims with his criticism of Islam,
in particular a recent film which said Islam promoted
violence against women and showed Koranic verses written on
a woman's naked body. He was cremated on Tuesday evening.
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