National News
'SA risks 2010 terror attack'
2010-05-30 14:56
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Cape Town - South Africa is at high risk of a World Cup terror attack, a Sunday newspaper reported, but the country's intelligence ministry ruled out any threat less than two weeks ahead of kick-off.
The Sunday Times cited a briefing to the United States congress counter-terrorism caucus last week by the NEFA Foundation which warned that simultaneous and random attacks were being planned during the tournament.
"I believe there is an 80% chance of an attack," the foundation's Ronald Sandee told the newspaper.
A South African state security ministry spokesperson on Sunday said no threat to the 64-match tournament which starts on June 11 had been uncovered.
"As far as we're concerned there are no threats that we have identified which are linked to the World Cup," spokesperson Brian Dube told AFP.
Vigilant
"No country is immune to these things, that's why we say we'll continue to be vigilant. But really there isn't any threat to the World Cup itself."
But NEFA, a terror-research group, warned of Pakistani and Somali militant training camps in neighbouring Mozambique and said trainees may have crossed into South Africa to join or set up cells planning attacks.
The Mozambique camps, the presence of operatives including al-Qaeda as well as the existence of terror strike cells were confirmed by other sources, the newspaper said.
World Cup attacks were referred to in closed-frequency radio broadcasts and telephone intercepts in Mauritania, Algeria, Mali, Pakistan and Yemen, Sandee told the US congress.
US warning
"Information confirms that several venues will be targeted, some simultaneously, others at random. Reference is also made to the possibility of a kamikaze-type attack," he is quoted as saying.
On Tuesday, the United States warned that large events like the World Cup could present attractive targets for terrorists, but that no specific or credible threat was known.
"There is a heightened risk that extremist groups will conduct terrorist acts within South Africa in the near future," it said in a travel alert.
A watch list of 40 terror suspects has been drawn up, the newspaper reported.