Militant groups in Africa are threatening Denmark. According to the PET [Danish Security and Intelligence Service], Danish interests abroad are the most likely targets.
Denmark and Danes abroad are again being threatened with terrorism after the reprinting of the Muhammad caricatures.
This time, the warning comes not from Pakistan or Afghanistan, but from a Sunni Muslim group in Somalia that is known to have training camps and close ties to the Al-Qa'idah terrorist network. In a video posted to the Internet, a recruit from the Al-Shabab group vows revenge against "the dirty dogs in Denmark."
"May God break their hands for what they have done," the young man prays. He is masked by a PLO scarf and is posing behind an antitank missile. In broken English, he promises that Muslims "will never forget the ridicule of the best human beings in the world and of the last messenger."
"So sleep with thoughts of our sword, which is dripping with your blood," is the message from the windblown edge of a forest.
Focus on Embassies
After Danish newspapers reprinted the Muhammad caricatures in February, following the exposure of plans to murder cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, the Danish Embassy in Pakistan was hit by a suicide attack that killed eight people. At the same time, the Afghan Al-Qa'idah warned "this is only the beginning, God willing."
Against that background, security at Danish embassies abroad has been stepped up considerably, and the Foreign Ministry is preparing to spend 100 million kroner on better surveillance of embassies in the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Over the last six months, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service has raised the threat level twice. In June, the PET wrote that a terrorist attack on Danish interests abroad could take place "without warning."
Mergers Among Fundamentalists
The PET refused to comment on the threat video from the group in Somalia, but in its latest risk assessment the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) says Al-Shabab is a group that is worth watching and one that will "pose the greatest terrorist threat to foreigners in Somalia."
"It is likely this group has close connections with the rest of Al-Qa'idah's network in East Africa," the FE wrote, discussing the daily attacks on Somali, Ethiopian, and Ugandan security forces.
Al-Shabab is also suspected of being behind the kidnappings and killings of foreigners in Somalia, which has been ravaged in recent years by civil war, internal collapse, and pressure from Islamist extremists. [passage omitted on previous US action against Al-Shabab]
Danes Should Leave Somalia
The Foreign Ministry warns in the strongest possible terms against entering Somalia and urges all Danes to leave the country immediately. Denmark has no diplomatic representation in Somalia, but it does have embassies in the neighbouring countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
The Danish chief of the aid organization UNICEF Somalia, Christian Balslev-Olesen travels in and out of the country, which experienced five suicide bombings last week. These bombings targeted the United Nations, among other organizations.
"We have had some indirect threats since the caricatures were reprinted, and for a short time, we avoided entering certain parts of Somalia. Al-Shabab has so far been preoccupied with the Somali agenda and has largely been a collective term for terrorism, religious extremism, and crime. So it is something new if the group is now directly threatening Danish targets. But there is a constant radicalization process, and Al-Qa'idah has congratulated Al-Shabab several times on its attacks," Balslev-Olesen said from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Source: Politiken website, Copenhagen, in Danish
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