Enlarge imageBy Wendel Broere
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Three Dutch police have been injured after a hand grenade exploded in a raid to arrest suspects in an ongoing anti-terrorism investigation, justice officials say.
Officials declined to say whether the operation, which was continuing with suspects still in a building cordoned off by police in the Dutch seat of government, was linked to the murder last week of a filmmaker by a suspected Islamist extremist.
"On the request of criminal investigation branch, an arrest team this morning at 02:45 (1:45 a.m. British time) tried to arrest suspects in an ongoing probe by the crime squad into terrorism," chief justice official Han Moraal told a news conference on Wednesday.
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Moraal said three police officers were injured when a hand grenade was thrown at them. Shots were also fired, he said. An unspecified number of suspects were still in the building.
Two of the injured officers were in hospital while one had been allowed to go home, police said.
The raid recalled a police operation in Madrid in April when three suspects in the March train bombings blew themselves up after police cornered them in a suburban apartment. A policeman also died and 11 people were injured.
Dutch police have arrested 10 people in their investigation into the killing of film director Theo van Gogh last week and are still holding six, including the prime suspect Mohammed B., who has been charged with murder and suspected links to a terrorist group.
ISLAMIST THREATS
The Netherlands has seen a series of apparent tit-for-tat attacks since Van Gogh’s murder, including an arson attack on a Muslim school on Tuesday night, where the words "Theo R.I.P." were scrawled on the walls along with a "White Power" sign.
A little-known Islamist group threatened on Tuesday to hit the Netherlands if the attacks on Muslim buildings did not stop. The country has received several threats from Islamic militants over the presence of 1,300 of its troops in Iraq.
Prosecutors declined to comment on Tuesday on media reports that authorities were hunting a Syrian they suspect of involvement in Van Gogh’s murder, threats against a politician and for planning attacks on government buildings.
Officials said the airspace over The Hague had been closed on Wednesday amid the ongoing operation. They sealed off the area after the explosion and an anti-terrorism unit was on the scene. It was not clear if anyone had been arrested.
"We are awaiting further police intervention," Hague police spokesman Frans van Rijnswou said.
Fire engines and riot police were on the scene. Journalists were kept away from the building behind a cordon and houses in the area were evacuated.
At least eight mosques and four churches have been targeted by arson attacks since Van Gogh was shot and stabbed as he cycled to work in Amsterdam last week.
A primary school in the southern Dutch village of Uden was gutted in a blaze on Tuesday evening. A small bomb also damaged a Muslim school in Eindhoven on Monday.
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk met Dutch Muslim groups on Tuesday to discuss ways to halt the escalating tension. The Netherlands is home to almost a million Muslims, or about 6 percent of the population.
Van Gogh enraged Muslims with his criticism of Islam, in particular a recent film which said Islam promoted violence against women and showed Koranic verses written on a woman’s naked body. He was cremated on Tuesday evening.
