Norway: 'Attack on Mohamed cartoon paper foiled'

Three terror suspects who were arrested in Norway over an alleged al-Qa'ida plot were probably planning an attack against the Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Mohamed, police said.

The intelligence branch of Denmark's police, PET, said the suspects were believed to be planning an attack either against the Jyllands-Posten newspaper directly or against people in Denmark linked to the 12 drawings that provoked outrage in Muslim countries in 2006.

The men were arrested on 8 July. US and Norwegian officials claim they are linked to the same al-Qa'ida leaders in Pakistan who were behind thwarted schemes apparently aimed at New York's subway and a British shopping centre.

Siv Alsen, spokeswoman at the Norwegian Police Security Service, said one of the suspects, Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak Bujak, 37, an Iraqi Kurd, had confessed.

She added: "The information we got indicates that it [Jyllands-Posten] was the target."

The other suspects in the case are David Jakobsen, a 31-year-old Uzbek national, and Mikael Davud, 39, an Uighur who came to Norway in 1999 and has Norwegian citizenship. Mr Davud is alleged to be the ringleader.

Their lawyers have said they intend to plead innocent to any terror charges. But Brynjar Meling, Mr Bujak's defence lawyer, said his client had admitted to being involved in the plot.