Authorities said Wednesday they have charged nine people in Belgium with participation in alleged terrorist activities, involving a potential attack in the country and recruitment for militant organizations fighting in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The arrests have had no impact on the terror alert level in Belgium, which remains at two out of a maximum of four points and also were unrelated to the recent reports of possible terrorist attacks in Germany.
Belgian authorities charged seven people from in and around northern Antwerp as part of a network that allegedly planned an attack in Belgium and was involved in recruiting for a Chechen militant organization, the Caucasus Emirate, said Leen Nuyts of the Belgian federal prosecutor's office. Two others in Belgium were charged in a separate probe centering on a network allegedly seeking funds and recruits to join militant groups in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"They are charged with participation in activities of a terrorist group," Nuyts said, without elaborating.
The Caucasus Emirate seeks to establish an Islamic state in Russia's southern region. Experts say the group maintains links to al-Qaida and related militant groups.
In addition to the police raids in Antwerp on Tuesday, similar ones took place in two neighboring nations when three people were arrested in the Netherlands and one in Germany. The suspects arrested in the three-nation sweep were of Belgian, Dutch, Moroccan or Russian nationality, mostly men in their twenties or thirties.
The coordinated international action laid bare two different organizations, said Eurojust, the European Union's justice coordination body.
"One an international jihadist terrorist organization, using an extremist-oriented website to collect money for their purposes, and the other involving recruiters of jihadist candidates and the financing of a Chechen terrorist organization," Eurojust said in a statement.
The Caucasus Emirate includes insurgents who seek to establish an Islamic emirate in Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. Its leader, Doku Umarov, claimed responsibility for the March 29 attacks on the Moscow subway that killed 40 commuters and wounded 121 during the morning rush hour.
Umarov fought Russian forces in both separatist wars in Chechnya over the last 15 years.
All suspects in Belgium will have to appear before a judge on Friday who will decide on their continued detention.
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AP writer Mike Corder contributed to this article from The Hague, Netherlands.
