|
U.S. Shuts Embassies After Italy Arrests
WASHINGTON, April 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States closed three of its embassies and a consulate in Latin America Friday over security concerns, the State Department said.
The embassies in Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and the consulate in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil are to be closed at least until Monday, said Wesley Carrington, a spokesman for the department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
"They are going to stay closed during the weekend and each post is going to review its respective security over the weekend and will decide in consultation with Washington whether to reopen on Monday morning," he said.
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the closures were ordered after receiving credible threats. The official would not describe the threats.
The decision to shut the missions followed an announcement Thursday of the arrest in Italy of five suspected members of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's alleged network. Italian police said they had planned to attack the U.S. embassy in Rome and the city of Strasbourg, France.
Stefano Dambruoso, the lead magistrate behind a series of six arrests in Italy and Germany on Thursday, said the network detained were not the only group operating in Europe, according to CNN.
The magistrate said investigators believed the Italian cell was linked to some 40 or 50 other members in Europe, it adds.
U.S. authorities have charged bin Laden with masterminding the near-simultaneous 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which left 224 people dead, 12 of them Americans.
In Montevideo, the El Pais newspaper reported the four diplomatic missions were among 10 on a list of targets for bin Laden's group.
But Uruguayan Interior Minister Guillermo Stirling said Uruguayan authorities have received no indication of any "terrorist" plots and no attempts have been made against the embassy. He said U.S. diplomats have given him no reason to increase security there.
The five arrested in Italy had been working from Busto Arsizio, near Milan, and have been charged with belonging to a criminal organization, arms trafficking and falsifying documents, said CNN.
|
