Suspicion still revolving around jihad groups. “10 killed at Norway youth camp shooting; seven dead in Oslo bombing, police say,” from The Star, July 22:
A man arrested after opening fire at a youth camp in Norway is linked to the bombing in Oslo earlier in the day Friday, police says.
An eyewitness told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that he saw as many as 25 bodies at the youth camp where a gunman dressed in a police uniform opened fire following a massive bomb blast in downtown Oslo.
Oslo police say up to 10 people have been killed at the camp.
Andre Scheie says he saw bodies on the shore of Utoya Island where the youth wing of the Labour Party was holding a summer camp for hundreds of youths.
“There are very many dead by the shore . . . there are about 20 to 25 dead.” He also said he saw dead people in the water.
Labour spokesman Per Gunnar Dahl told the Associated Press that a man dressed in a police uniform started shooting at teenagers assembled for the party”s annual youth camp. He said some 700 people, mostly teenagers between 14 and 18 years old, were gathered.
A number of unconfirmed news reports suggested a chaotic and horrifying scene unfolded at the camp. Norway”s TV2 reported that the alleged shooter had been arrested. TV2″s website said that many of the young people at the camp swam away in the lake or were hiding in bushes as the attack took place.
News reports also said police were checking if there were any bombs at the scene. Eyewitness reports said bodies were reportedly found floating in the water around the island.
Norwegian media reports say that a man of “Nordic” appearance has been arrested, and that police have control of the island. A local police spokesman confirmed to Al Jazeera that the suspect is in custody, and that he had said he was at the camp to provide security.
Meanwhile, seven people have been confirmed dead and dozens injured after a loud explosion shattered windows Friday at the government headquarters in Oslo, which includes the prime minister’s office. […]
So far police say no group or person has taken responsibility for the bombing or the mass shooting, TV2 reported on its website. […]
The blast comes as the Scandinavian country has grappled with a series of homegrown terror plots linked to Al Qaeda, and six years after an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in neighbouring Denmark.
Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he’s deported from the Nordic country.
The indictment centred on statements that Mullah Krekar “” the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam “” made to various media, including American network NBC.
Last June, several newspapers quoted threats made by Krekar.
“Norway will pay a heavy price for my death,” he said. “If, for example, Erna Solber deports me and I die as a result, she will suffer the same fate.”
Solber is the current leader of the Conservative Party of Norway.
Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that triggered protests in Muslim countries.
Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of a cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.
In July 2010, three people were held in an “Al Qaeda-bomb plot” BBC reported.
Two of the men “” a Muslim Uighur from China, an Iraqi citizen, and an Uzbek national “”were arrested in Norway and one in Germany, said Janne Kristiansen, the head of the Norwegian security police told BBC. They are Norwegian residents.
The men are believed to have links to Al Qaeda and alleged bomb plots in the U.S. and U.K., Kristiansen said.