AARHUS, Denmark, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Danish authorities have expanded the investigation into the attempted murder of an illustrator who drew a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, with the suspect accused of having plotted a similar murder attempt against U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Kurt Westergaard, 74, knows that the cartoon he drew of the prophet with a bomb instead of a turban will always haunt him. He has had police protection ever since the cartoon row turned violent in 2006. Danish authorities had arrested three suspects who allegedly plotted to murder him.
This past Friday, the threat became real. Around 10 p.m., a 28-year-old Somali-born resident of Denmark wielding an ax broke into Westergaard's house near Aarhus.
The cartoonist was able to flee into a "panic room" in his home. Police arriving at the scene shortly afterward shot the attacker in the leg and the hand. He has since been held in custody and charged with attempted murder.
Danish intelligence officials linked the man, who has not yet been identified, to an East African Islamist militia allied with al-Qaida. Police Monday searched three homes, two of which belong to the suspect's relatives, in order to find out whether the man acted alone.
Danish newspaper Politiken said the man has also been suspected of trying to assassinate Hillary Clinton during her visit to Kenya this past summer. The man was apparently held by Kenyan authorities but released due to lack of evidence, the newspaper said. Danish authorities had since monitored him. However, they had no idea he was planning to kill Westergaard.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference condemned the attack on Westergaard's life, saying it "runs totally against the teachings and values of Islam."
Westergaard's drawing -- showing the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse -- was first published by Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten in 2005 as part of a collection of cartoons dealing with Islam.
Reprints of the cartoons in 2006 triggered violent protests all over the world that killed more than 50 people. They also sparked a boycott of Danish products and attacks on Danish institutions in Muslim countries.
