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“Our country has always been successful in hosting international events and ready to repulse any terror threats,” police commissioner Cele told IOL. |
CAPE TOWN – A few months to the 2010 world football cup, South African law enforcement authorities are on high alert amid reports of possible terror plots against one of the world’s most important sports events.
“Our country has always been successful in hosting international events and ready to repulse any terror threats,” National police commissioner Bheki Cele told IslamOnline.net.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July in South Africa, the first time the world’s premier football tournament would be hosted by Africa.
The Weekend Argus newspaper claimed last week that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) had intercepted a phone call between a Somali in Khyelitsha and Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militant group discussing a plot to blow up American interests in South Africa.
The Cape Town-based paper suggested the plot was in retaliation for the recent killing of an Al-Shabaab commander in a US commando operation in southern Somalia.
Cele said South African police, military and intelligence were on high alert.
“Our NIA together with other intelligence structures in the country are busy working round the clock to ensure that those involved in these terrorist activities are brought to book.”
But the police commissioner refused not elaborate.
“I don’t want to jeopardize our mission by revealing the nature of our operation.”
Muslim Responses
Sheikh Abdirashid Afi Shiek, the chairperson of the Somali Community Board in Western Cape, cast serious doubts on the plot claims.
“No right-thinking Somali would be willing to engage or work as an agent of Al-Qaeda in SA regardless of desperation or how much they would be offered in return,” he told IOL.
Sheikh Afi, a Member of the Muslim Judicial Council, said Somalis were happy with the South African government for offering them asylum and would not abuse the privilege by engaging in terrorism activities.
He noted that Somalis had fled their country because they did not want to fight or engage in extremist activities in the first place.
Al-Hajji Yusuf, a Somali businessman, said Somalis in South Africa were struggling to make a living and had several extended families to support back home, so it would be thoughtless to brand them as terrorists.
He also disagrees with the argument that Somalis want to attack US interests in South Africa because it would be easier than fighting the superpower in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia.
Yusuf believes the argument lacks sound logic because millions of Somalis already live in the US itself and if they wanted to target US interests they would have easily done that in the US itself.
Somalia has been without a functional government since the overthrow of Siad Barre in 1991.
The UN-backed transitional government of Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad, seen as a moderate Islamist by the US and the West, is battling Al-Shabaab and other militant groups.
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