Iceland: Four arrested for terrorist plot – 20 Minutes

“The origin of yesterday’s police operations (…) is part of an investigation into the preparation of a terrorist attack,” Karl Steinar Valsson, national commissioner of the Icelandic police, told reporters. Several semi-automatic weapons, some 3D-printed, were seized from nine different locations, along with ‘thousands’ of ammunition, police say. Four Icelanders in their twenties were arrested in Kopavogur, a suburb of the capital Reykjavik, and in the city of Mosfellsbaer, in the south-west of the country, during a large-scale operation involving around fifty men on Wednesday, the same source said. Two of them were taken into pre-trial detention on Thursday. While the motives are still unknown, the targets are said to be “various institutions” and “citizens of the state”, according to Valsson, possibly including parliament and the police. herself. A low crime ratePolice said they were investigating whether there were links between the men and extremist organizations and were in contact with foreign authorities. “As far as we know, this is the first time such a survey has been launched (in Iceland),” Valsson said. The small nation of 375,000 people tops the global peace index. since it was included in the ranking in 2008 and considered the “most peaceful country in the world”. Violence is rare there, as evidenced by one of the lowest crime rates in the world, although a resurgence of violence in recent years worries the authorities.