Police have arrested 10 radical Islamists in three countries over a terrorist plot to attack Belgium, Belgian federal prosecutors say.
They were detained in police swoops in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany after a year-long investigation by police in the Belgian city of Antwerp.
An “international jihadist terrorist group” was allegedly plotting to attack an unspecified target in Belgium.
The police investigation also looked at funding for a Chechen militant group.
The 10 suspects were arrested in simultaneous operations on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for prosecutors said in a press release.
They include Belgians, Dutch people, Moroccans and Chechens, and most of the detainees are resident in Antwerp, the spokeswoman said.
They were due to appear before a specialist anti-terrorism judge in Antwerp later on Tuesday.
In the course of the investigation, a number of other people were also arrested in Spain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.
The Belgian prosecutors’ spokeswoman said police had investigated both the alleged a plot to attack Belgium, and alleged recruitment and fundraising for a Chechen militant group called “Caucasus Emirate”.
It was not immediately clear if this was a reference to the radical militants fighting to carve an Islamist state out of the Russian North Caucasus region.
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