Police in Belgium and The Netherlands arrested six people in a joint swoop on a network thought to be planning attacks on US targets in Europe, authorities said today.
Two of the men were arrested yesterday in Brussels, and police found two Uzi machine pistols during a house search, a spokeswoman for the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office said.
The identities and nationalities of the suspects were not disclosed. Two other men were detained in Brussels with the two suspects but were later released.
"Those four persons [detained in Brussels] all belong to a radical Islamic movement," Belgian spokeswoman Ms Beatrice Behets said. Police also seized documents which are now being analysed, she said.
The arrests followed a tip-off from the Belgian State Security Service that one of the suspects might be preparing attacks on US targets in Europe, Ms Behets said. The other four were arrested in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam on Thursday night, Dutch prosecutor's spokesman Mr Wim de Bruijn said.
He said there was no connection with Tuesday's terror attacks in the United States, in which intelligence officials have said fugitive Saudi-born Islamic guerrilla chieftain Osama Bin Laden is the number one suspect.
Mr De Bruijn would not say whether the men held in The Netherlands were armed or whether they had anything suspicious in their possession.
Germany today released an airport worker held for 24 hours in connection with the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. German investigators were continuing an investigation into Hamburg-based extremists allegedly involved.