The 12 Somali men arrested in Rotterdam on Friday night were planning to launch a terrorist attack in the Netherlands ‘in the short term’, the public prosecution department said on Saturday.
However, public prosecution department spokesman Wim de Bruin told the NRC the justice ministry currently has ‘no information at all’ about the potential target.
The 12 were arrested by police in a phone shop and four homes in Rotterdam and two motel rooms in Brabant. No weapons or explosives were found during the raids.
The men are aged between 19 and 48. Six are Rotterdam residents, five have ‘no fixed address’ and one comes from Denmark, the public prosecution department said in a statement.
Elite squad
The arrests were made by the police and army’s elite anti-terror unit DSI following a tip-off from the AIVD.
The NRC states the authorities appear to have taken the threat ‘very seriously’ and that the counter-terrorism office had been fully informed.
One eyewitness to the arrests in Rotterdam told the Telegraaf that two phone shop owners were arrested and 11 computers taken away for analysis.
The brother of one of the men said three people had been arrested at his home. One, the Danish Somali, was on holiday.
The men are expected to appear in court on Monday.
Earlier this year, the AIVD added Somalia to its list of potential terrorist threats against the Netherlands. Dutch News
