COPENHAGEN, Denmark � Three terror suspects who were arrested in an alleged al-Qaida plot in Norway were likely planning an attack against a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, Norwegian and Danish police said Tuesday.
The intelligence branch of Denmark's police, PET, said the plot was believed to be targeting either the Jyllands-Posten newspaper directly or people in Denmark linked to the 12 drawings that sparked outrage in Muslim countries in 2006.
The men were arrested July 8. U.S. and Norwegian officials believe the plot was linked to the same Pakistan-based al-Qaida planners behind thwarted schemes to blow up New York's subway and a British shopping mall.
Siv Alsen, spokeswoman at the Norwegian Police Security Service, told The Associated Press that one of the suspects, 37-year-old Iraqi Kurd Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak Bujak, had revealed the plot to investigators.
"We can confirm that he has confessed, and explained about his role in planning terror. He was planning this together with the two others arrested," Alsen said. "The information we got indicates that it (Jyllands-Posten) was the target."
It was the second time this month that Scandinavian police said the Danish newspaper was the target of planned attacks.
On Sept. 10, a Chechen boxer was injured in a small explosion at a Copenhagen hotel while preparing a letter bomb, likely intended for the Jyllands-Posten, Danish police said.
PET head Jakob Scharf said Tuesday that the two cases, which were not believed to be related, "illustrate that there is a priority among militant Islamists to carry out acts of terror against Denmark and symbols connected" to the cartoons.
Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
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