Belgium arrests 14 in anti-terrorism sweep

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MADRID, Dec 12 (agencies): In a major anti-terrorism sweep carried out as European leaders arrived in Brussels for a summit, Belgian police Thursday arrested 14 suspects allegedly linked to Al Qaeda, including one who police believe was close to launching a suicide attack.
The arrests were made by 242 officers who conducted 16 searches in Brussels and Liege, while French police arrested two additional suspects tied to the group, anti-terrorism officials said.
The raids came after a yearlong investigation in which police tracked militants, mainly Belgians and French of North African origin, who traveled to Al Qaeda hide-outs in Pakistan and Afghanistan, fought against Western troops and then returned to Europe, investigators said.
Authorities said they grew alarmed during the last week when surveillance showed that a key suspect had returned from South Asia on Dec. 4 and begun making what police believe were preparations for a suicide attack. Investigators feared the attack might target the 27 leaders of the European Union, who began the two-day summit in Brussels on Thursday.
"We don't know where this suicide attack was envisioned," chief federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle said at a news conference. "It could concern an operation in Pakistan [or] Afghanistan, but it could not be totally ruled out that Belgium or Europe were a target."
The investigation featured one of the largest recent deployments of anti-terrorism investigators and wiretaps in Belgium. The allegations resemble a pattern detected in Britain and other European countries: Militants travel to the Afghan-Pakistani border zone and return to target their homelands, often directed from afar by Al Qaeda masterminds.