Swedish Blast Suspect Left Recordings Warning of Strikes in Name of Islam
Swedish Bomb Blasts Mark First Possible Terror Attack
Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
A passer-by stand stands at the site where a suspected bomber was killed the day before.
A passer-by stand stands at the site where a suspected bomber was killed the day before. Photographer: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
Swedisn Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt
Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. Photographer: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
The man who killed himself in bomb blasts that Swedish police are treating as the country’s first brush with terror left recordings warning of strikes to defend Islam against the “war being waged” on it.
The Nordic country’s Security Service is investigating two blasts that occurred a few hundred meters apart and close to a street crowded with Christmas shoppers at about 5 p.m. local time on Dec. 11. The first blast set a car on fire, the second killed the suspect and injured two people.
Police are assuming there was “some sort of mistake” that led to the early detonation of one of the bombs that killed the suspect, said Tomas Lindstrand, chief prosecutor on security issues at the International Prosecution Chamber, at a news conference in Stockholm today. “It’s not too far-fetched to assume he was on his way to a place where he would find as many people as possible.”
Unlike neighboring Denmark, which became a target of Islamist anger in 2006 after its biggest newspaper published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, Swedish police until October had deemed the threat of any terrorist attack to be “low.” The September general election brought the anti- immigration Sweden Democrats into parliament for the first time.
Shortly before the explosions, police and a local news agency received an e-mail with recordings in Swedish and Arabic from a man who said it was “time to strike” because a “war was being waged against Islam.”
Afghanistan, Cartoons
Sweden has about 500 troops in Afghanistan serving as part of the International Security Assistance Force. Swedish artist Lars Vilks drew anger from some Muslims after newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published one of his drawings that put Mohammed’s head on a dog’s body in 2007.
In the recording, the suspect expresses anger against Vilks and the Afghan deployment, newspaper Expressen said. He apologizes to his family for lying about his trips to the Middle East, saying he went “for Jihad.”
Lindstrand said Swedish police could identify the suspect as 28-year-old Taimour Abdulwahab “to a 98-percent-degree of certainty.”
The U.K.’s Guardian newspaper said Abdulwahab was an Iraqi- born Swede who obtained a Bachelors of Science in sports therapy from the University of Bedfordshire in 2004. The newspaper also said he had spent some time in Luton in recent years. The Guardian said the suspect’s details had been confirmed by people close to the U.K. government it didn’t identify.
U.K. Cooperation
“We are cooperating with British police and that contact will continue,” Lindstrand said. “As it looks now, he was alone, but we know from experience that several people are usually involved in this type of incident and it seems that although the attack was a failure it was well-planned in general. If all of the explosives had detonated at once, it seems as if the explosion would have cause very significant damage.”
U.K. police searched a property in Bedfordshire, north of London, at 10:55 p.m. local time yesterday, according to a London Metropolitan Police spokesman who declined to be identified, citing police policy. No arrests were made in connection with the blasts and no hazardous materials were found, the spokesman said. The investigation at the property is ongoing, he said.
‘Crossed Threshold’
“There has been a perception that it probably doesn’t happen here and it wouldn’t target us,” said Magnus Ranstorp, research director at the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College in Stockholm, by telephone yesterday. “Now we have crossed the threshold, we have crossed a new line.”
Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter that the attack “could have been truly catastrophic” if it hadn’t failed.
“Sweden was a calm bay in a stormy sea, now the problem is close to home,” Ranstorp said, speaking from Copenhagen. “This kind of event changes the security perception. There has been a shift in the past six months with groups wanting to target Swedish interests. You might have copycats.”
The attacks didn’t disrupt financial markets. The country’s benchmark OMX Index of the top 30 stocks traded 0.8 percent higher at 1,148.38 at 3:25 p.m. The difference between Swedish 10-year yields and German yields on same-maturity debt narrowed to 0.226 percent. The Swedish 10-year yield was at 3.195 percent.
Financial Markets
“We’re still in the middle and we don’t have all the pieces, but it’s unlikely this will leave any big footprint on the financial markets tomorrow,” Robert Bergqvist, SEB AB chief economist, said yesterday. “This may be unique for Sweden, but as we know sadly it isn’t unusual around the world.”
The Islamic Association in Sweden condemned the attacks in a statement on its website, saying they “threatened Swedes’ mutual peace and security.”
Ranstorp said it is “very rare” that an isolated incident would happen without other people being involved in the preparation. “I would be surprised if he didn’t have broader connections,” he said. “You have a car bomb, a suicide bomber, a statement sent to the media. There was a point of no return.”
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said it’s important not to victimize groups in society based on presumption.
Reinfeldt’s coalition has maintained its lead over the opposition since it won elections on Sept. 19, while support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats has risen, an opinion poll by Statistics Sweden showed on Dec. 8.
Sweden’s security service raised its terror alert level from “low” to “elevated” in October saying Swedish-based groups could be plotting attacks. At the time, it said the threat to Sweden wasn’t seen as “imminent” and hasn’t raised the threat level since the weekend’s blasts.
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Kim McLaughlin at kmclaughlin6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Quinson at tquinson@bloomberg.net Tasneem Brogger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net
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