Friday - July 22, 2011

Terrorists Strike Norway

OSLO (Reuters)- A bomb ripped through Oslo’s central government district on Friday and a gunmen dressed as a policeman then opened fire at a youth camp on a nearby island, killing 17 people altogether, police said.

In the biggest such attack in western Europe since the London transport bombings in 2005, seven died when the bomb exploded on the Norwegian capital in mid-afternoon scattering glass, shattered masonry and twisted steel across the streets.

Shortly afterwards, a gunman opened fire at the youth camp of the ruling political party on Utoeya island, north-west of Oslo. Police said nine or 10 people were killed and they believed the two attacks were linked. The gunman was arrested.

The bomb, which shook the city center at around 3:30 p.m. (1330 GMT), blew out the windows of the Prime Minister’s building and damaged the finance and oil ministries.

“People ran in panic,” said bystander Kjersti Vedun.

With police advising people to evacuate central Oslo, apparently in fear of more attacks, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian TV2 television in a phone call that the situation was “very serious.” He said that police had told him not to say where he was speaking from.

A Reuters witness saw soldiers taking up positions in Oslo.

The gunman, described by a police official as tall and blond, was reported by Norwegian media to have taken advantage of the confusion caused by the bombing to attack the summer camp of Stoltenberg’s Labour party youth section.
...
“This is a terror attack. It is the most violent event to strike Norway since World War Two,” said Geir Bekkevold, an opposition parliamentarian for the Christian Peoples Party.

NO CLUES YET FROM DETAINED MAN

Lilit Gevorgyan, analyst at IHS Global Insight, said the most likely suspects were al-Qaeda-linked or inspired groups, but added:

“As the news continues trickling in from Utoeya, however, right-wing extremist groups or even a lone perpetrator with army training or access to ammunition and weaponry could be behind the plot.”

Police have been on the alert for complex gun-and-bomb attacks on European cities since the assault by 10 gunmen on India’s financial capital Mumbai in November 2008 which killed 166 people. The Oslo attacks, though hitting two targets, were not simultaneous and the delay between them left open the possibility of a single perpetrator.
...
The Oslo district attacked is the very heart of power in Norway, with several other key administration buildings nearby. Nevertheless, security is not tight given the lack of violence in the past.

OSLO (Reuters) - A gunman killed nine or 10 people in a shooting at a meeting in Norway of the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party Friday, police said.

“The number is 10, possibly nine,” deputy Oslo police chief Sveining Sponheim told reporters when asked about the preliminary toll in a shooting on Utoeya island, north west of Oslo.

“That’s what we know so far,” he said. He said a man had been arrested and was being questioned by Oslo police, who believe he also has knowledge of a bomb blast in Oslo that killed seven people.

Although the source of the blast is unclear, Al-Jazeera TV notes that Norwegian prosecutors on Tuesday filed a terrorism charge against Mullah Krekar, founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam.

BBC news servers are being hammered with hits and are barely responding. It’s hard to get fresh info.

Some live reporting -
Key points

* A bomb has been detonated at government headquarters in Oslo
* Norwegian police say at least seven people have been killed and two are badly wounded
* Oslo police are advising residents to stay at home
* No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack
* At least nine people have been killed in a separate shooting at a Labour youth camp outside Oslo
* Unconfirmed reports say Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg had been due to attend the camp

a partial bottom-up timeline (GMT+1):

2145: The justice minister has just confirmed the suspect arrested today at the youth camp in Utoeya was Norwegian.
2143: “You will not destroy us. You will not destroy our democracy or our ideals for a better world,” Prime Minister Stolenberg adds.
2142: “No one will bomb us to silence. No one wil shoot us to silence. No one will ever scare us away from beign Norway,” Mr Stoltenberg says.
2124: A terrorism expert tells the BBC that Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad, a terror group that claimed responsibility for the explosion in Oslo, was not behind the attack.
2056: The foreign minister has also confirmed that the man arrested following the shooting on the island is Caucasian.
1955: A doctor at Oslo University Hospital tells the BBC the facility has taken in 11 “heavily injured people” following the blast. He said hospital staff are treating injuries to people’s head, chest and abdomen.
1948: Eyewitness Andre Scheie told NRK: “There are very many dead by the shore… There are about 20-25 dead.” Mr Scheie also said he saw people dead in the water at the camp.
1811: Reuters reports state TV says one person has been arrested at the Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya.
2039: The New York Times is reporting that the terror group Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad, is claiming responsibilty for the bombing in Oslo.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/22/2011 at 04:02 PM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA • War On Terror •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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