3 arrested in Austria over video threat

Two men and a woman with suspected contacts to al-Qaida were arrested Wednesday in connection with an online video threat by Islamic militants against Austria and Germany in March, officials said.

Interior Minister Guenther Platter said they were believed to have contacts to al-Qaida and that one of the men was suspected of being the creator of the video. The other man was suspected of contributing to it, he told reporters.

Erik Buxbaum, the nation's general manager for public security, said: "We had no indication that a concrete terror attack in Austria or elsewhere with participation of these people was planned."

Platter said two of the three were a couple. A confiscated laptop was being checked, and house searches were continuing, he added. The three suspects, all Vienna residents, were arrested after a bugging operation and were being interviewed, he said. Buxbaum added that at present no further arrests were expected.

Interior Ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said the arrests occurred in Vienna before noon on Wednesday. All three suspects were in their 20s and unemployed, Gollia said, adding that authorities had monitored the suspects for months but acted today because it was suspected they were planning to leave the country.

In a Web statement that surfaced in March, Islamic militants threatened to attack Germany and Austria unless the two nations broke ranks with the U.S. and withdrew their personnel from Afghanistan.

An unidentified speaker, whose face was blurred, said about 2,750 German soldiers in Afghanistan will "not be safe from attacks" by the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters there. He also threatened that the militants will carry out attacks in Austria and against Austrian personnel in Afghanistan.

"Austria has always been one of the most safe countries in Europe depending on tourism both in summer and winter," the unidentified speaker said. "But if it doesn't withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, it may be among targeted nations."

The tape also featured a portion of an old video of al-Qaida's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri threatening Western countries with attacks.

In an interview later with Austrian broadcaster ORF, Platter described those arrested in Vienna as an "autonomous, independent group" that had worked on behalf of al-Qaida. He said the prime suspect had investigated acquiring explosives, though no explosives were found in the man's home.

A statement posted on the Interior Ministry Web site said the main suspect had regular contact with people, both in Austria and abroad, who could be classified as "radical."

Last week, Germany arrested three alleged Islamic radicals, believed to have undergone training in Pakistan, for planning to bomb U.S. and other facilities in Germany. Platter said there were "no connections" to the recent developments in Germany.

Germany has no troops in Iraq, but it does have troops serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, most of them in the north of the country.

Austria also has no troops in Iraq and has just four officers in Afghanistan.