BRUSSELS – A group of alleged Islamic fundamentalist militants arrested in Belgium and Italy earlier this week may have been plotting to blow up Nato headquarters or the European Parliament, both of which are housed in Brussels.

According to the Wednesday edition of Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Italian investigators say one of the militants, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed or ‘Mohamed the Egyptian’, may have been plotting to bomb a “symbolic target” in the Belgian capital. 

Belgian prosecutors seem less convinced about the possibility however.

Asked to confirm reports of a planned attack on Nato, a spokeswoman for the Belgian public prosecutors office refused to be drawn.

“The elements in the case do not allow us to say with certainty yes or no,” she is quoted on the BBC’s website as saying.

Other sources close to the enquiry in Italy have been cited as saying the militants may have been planning an attack on the Paris metro.

But the French authorities on Thursday insisted there was no evidence to back up such a claim.

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Belgian news