Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

South Africa police stop terror plot

|
|
 
  
Published: May 27, 2004 at 10:01 AM

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, May 27 (UPI) -- South Africa's top law officer says his agents foiled an al-Qaida plot last month in an operation that also prompted action in Syria, Jordan and Britain.

Jackie Selebi, the country's police commissioner, said a number of people from outside South Africa were arrested April 9, five days before a national election, the BBC reported Thursday.

"We arrested some people who had evil intentions towards this country," he said. "We did not tell anybody."

Selebi said his police operation led to arrests in Jordan and Syria.

In April, Jordanian officials said they foiled a chemical plot, arresting six people and killing four others.

Officials said the plot involved attacking the intelligence department in Amman, using trucks loaded with 20 tons of chemicals and possibly causing the deaths of thousands of people.

Selebi added as part of his operation British police found "boxes and boxes" of South African passports at a London home.

Topics: Jackie Selebi
© 2004 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...