Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Dutch probe report of ISIS 'sleeper cell' among Muslim migrants

Syrian jihadist (file)
Syrian jihadist (file)
Reuters


The Netherlands is investigating media reports that a sleeper cell of the Islamic State jihadist group (ISIS) has been hiding among migrants in a Dutch refugee camp, officials said Tuesday.

"We have heard these reports and an inquiry is being undertaken into this," Justice Minister Ard van der Steur told MPs during a parliamentary session.

He refused to go into any detail, saying only that "in this kind of case information is internationally shared at every level."

The French newspaper Le Monde reported Tuesday that a Syrian suspect who turned himself into French police had revealed the existence of the sleeper cell, split between a camp in the eastern Dutch town of Nijmegen, close to the German border, and the German city of Duesseldorf.

The suspect, identified as Saleh A, said there were about 20 people in the cell of which he and another man Hamza C. were the heads, Le Monde said. READ MORE