Man held in the UK over Stockholm suicide bomb

Police in Scotland have confirmed that a man has been arrested in connection with the suicide bombing in Stockholm in December.

A 30-year-old man was arrested shortly after 6am on Tuesday as part of an operation that began in Sweden, according to Strathclyde police.

"The arrest in Scotland is a result of the Scottish police investigation and a cooperation between Scotland and Sweden within the framework for international legal assistance, as well as a good cooperation between prosecutors and the police authorities," Swedish intelligence agency Säpo said in a statement.

"The investigation so far shows that there may be a connection between the arrested person and the terror crime in Stockholm on December 11th, something
the continued investigative work in Scotland will have to show," the statement
added.

Strathclyde police confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that the man was arrested at 6.05am in the Whiteinch area of Glasgow, adding that he was not a UK citizen.

"This has resulted in a 30-year-old foreign national being arrested under the Terrorism Act. The operation centres on a previous incident in Sweden."

A police spokesperson confirmed that the arrest was made after intelligence gathering which indicated that he had been involved in assisting terror activities outside of Scotland.

There was no direct threat against Scotland, the police confirmed.

Taimour Abdulwahab, a Swedish citizen who lived in the British town of Luton with his wife and three children, narrowly missed wreaking carnage among Christmas shoppers when he blew himself up next to Stockholm's busiest pedestrian street on December 11th.

He was carrying a cocktail of explosives and is believed to have mistakenly set off a small explosion that killed him before he could carry out what appears to have been a mission to kill "as many people as possible," a Swedish prosecutor said days after the attack.

An Islamist website, Shumukh al-Islam, posted a purported will by Abdulwahab which said he was fulfilling a threat by Al-Qaeda in Iraq to attack Sweden.

Shortly before the explosions, Säpo and the TT news agency received an email with audio files in which Abdulwahab is heard telling "all hidden mujahedeen in Europe, and especially in Sweden, it is now the time to fight back."

TL