Agency: Terror threat against Denmark considerable

Denmark's intelligence service said Thursday there is still a considerable threat from Islamic extremists against Danes and Danish interests abroad.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said it has seen signs of threats from militants, especially in North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Feb. 13 reprinting of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad has lead to "a sharpened focus" on Denmark, the agency said. The original publication triggered violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006.

In Thursday's statement, the service said al-Qaida was using the reprint for propaganda.

"Statements from leading al-Qaida members underline al-Qaida's strategic focus on Denmark and contributes to maintaining militant extremists' focus on Denmark and Danish interests," the agency's center for terror analysis said in a public assessment.

In an audio recording posted on a militant Web site on March 19, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden warned of a "severe" reaction against Europe over the republishing of the cartoon.

In June, a car bomb killed six people outside the Danish Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. Two months earlier the security service had warned of a terror threat there. A statement attributed to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack.

Danish and international security experts have previously said the Scandinavian country could become a terror target because of the prophet drawings and its military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Denmark withdrew its troops from Iraq last year, but has more than 600 troops participating in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

Since 2005, police have foiled four alleged terror plots in Denmark, most of them involving homegrown extremists accused of preparing terror acts in Denmark or other countries.

The last terror attack in Denmark occurred in 1985 when a bomb exploded outside the offices of North West Orient airlines in Copenhagen, killing one person and wounding 16.