Gulf Times Newspaper - Nervous bravado in European cities under Qaeda threat

Gulf Times Newspaper

Nervous bravado in European cities under Qaeda threat

European nations were given a “final warning” to pull their troops out of Iraq within a month or face more attacks in an Al Qaeda message on the Internet dated July 16. “It’s a message we are addressing to the crusaders who are still present in Iraq – Denmark, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and those other countries whose troops continue to criss-cross Iraqi territory,” it said. The Netherlands, which withdrew its active troop contingent from Iraq in April, was still named in the Al Qaeda message.
“I am not scared. I have to see it to believe it,” said tram driver Roland Paesch in Amsterdam. Though transport authorities in the Netherlands have given no special instruction for vigilance, Paesch and his colleagues have been casting a wary eye since the repeat attacks in London. “There is nothing we can do, we have to carry on,” he said. “Whatever we do, they (the terrorists) are here, in the city and if they want to do something...” He gestures skywards without finishing the sentence.