MIDEAST: Israel said yesterday it deported a US citizen last month because of alleged fund-raising links to the al-Qaeda network. It was confirmed also that an al-Qaeda attack on Israel's soccer team in October had been thwarted by a last-minute arrest.
Israeli officials said Dr Khaled Nazem Diab (34), a Palestinian with US citizenship, had been detained for two weeks. The sources added he was involved in Islamic charity organisations transferring funds to the Palestinian Authority, and in the past had links to a group closed after the September 11th attacks on charges of transferring funds to al-Qaeda. He was deported to Jordan last week without being charged.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Israel said he was "not aware of any evidence" linking Dr Diab to a terror group.
It was reported yesterday that an attack on the Israeli soccer team during a European Championship qualifying game in Malta on October 12th had been foiled after the arrest of a Tunisian national.
"I think a day before the game they arrested a person connected to al-Qaeda," team coach Avraham Grant said yesterday. "(At the time) we didn't understand there was a specific warning."
The latest allegations of Israeli-related al-Qaeda activity come in the wake of the attack in Kenya last week, in which three Israelis were among 15 people killed in a suicide bomb explosion at a hotel.
In Gaza city, a man who Israel claimed was a leading militant was killed when helicopters fired several missiles at a small security structure. The dead man was Mustafa Sabah (35), who worked in the Palestinian Authority and whom Israel said was also a member of a militia associated with President Yasser Arafat's Fatah Party.
Indonesian police have said they arrested a man alleged to be the new operational leader of Southeast Asia's Jemaah Islamiah network, suspected of links to al-Qaeda. - (Reuters)