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Kosovo Arrests 19 Suspected of Planning IS Attacks

by Reuters

   PRISTINA, KOSOVO --

   Police in Kosovo said Wednesday that they had arrested 19 people in the
   past 10 days on suspicion of having links with Islamic State and
   planning to carry out attacks in Kosovo and in neighboring Albania.

   The police said the suspects were in contact with an IS member, the
   self-declared "commander of Albanians in Syria and Iraq," Lavdrim
   Muhaxheri, from whom they received orders to attack.

   "They were planning to commit terrorist attacks in Kosovo and also [an
   attack] against Israel's football team and their fans during the
   Albania-Israel match," Kosovo police said in a statement in the
   evening.

   Albania moved a World Cup European qualifying match with Israel on
   November 12 from the northern city of Shkoder to a venue near the
   capital, Tirana, because of fears of a possible attack by militants.

   Four people were arrested on terrorism charges.

   The police said the suspects had planned to carry out "synchronized
   terrorist attacks," but it did not give any details. It said
   explosives, weapons, ammunition and a drone had been seized.

   Detentions, arrests

   At least 200 people have been detained or investigated in Kosovo over
   their alleged links with IS in recent years. A total of 300 Kosovars
   went to Syria to fight alongside Islamic State troops, and more than 50
   have been killed there.

   International and local security agencies in Kosovo, including NATO's
   mission and the EU police mission, are worried that many of those
   returning home from combat zones could pose a security threat.

   Most of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority are nominally Muslim but
   overwhelmingly secular.

   Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of
   the West. In 2015 it adopted a law introducing jail sentences of up to
   15 years for anyone found guilty of fighting in wars abroad.