Serbian prosecutors file terrorism charges against 15 Muslims
Associated Press Worldstream - September 14, 2007, Friday 11:57 AM GMT

BELGRADE Serbia - Serbia's state prosecutors on Friday filed criminal charges against 15 Muslim men from a tense southern region for alleged terrorist activity.

Most of the indicted men were arrested in raids earlier this year in the Sandzak region bordering Kosovo where large caches of ammunition and bomb-making material were also discovered, the prosecution office said.

The prosecutors believe the weapons were intended for "terrorist actions" by Muslim extremists against targets in the region.

The men were arrested in March and April and police accused them of being Islamic radicals and adherents of the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, which is followed by Osama bin Laden and many al-Qaida members.

Police said at the time that they discovered a mountain cave that served as a terrorist training ground packed with plastic explosives, masks and machine guns.

Western intelligence reports leaked recently have suggested that Sandzak, as well as Muslim-dominated regions in neighboring Bosnia and Kosovo, could be an ideal recruitment spot for the so-called "white al-Qaida" Muslims with Western features who could easily blend into European or U.S. cities and execute terrorist attacks.

Several incidents have taken place recently in Sandzak within the Muslim community, but no terrorist attacks have been reported.

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