Serbia Acts Against Militant Sandzak Wahhabis

http://www.balkanalysis.com/security-intelligence-briefs/031807-serbian-police-act-against-militant-sandzak-wahhabis/

(Balkanalysis.com Security & Intelligence Brief 20) Serbian police arrested four Sandzaki Muslims, and claimed to have discovered large caches of ammunition and explosives owned by them, in a Saturday raid on a remote mountain cave area outside of Novi Pazar, provincial capital of the volatile Sandzak region straddling Serbia and Montenegro.

According to AFP, “large quantities of plastic explosives, ammunition, face masks, military uniforms, bombs, food, water and other equipment” were found at the site, which authorities believe was a base or training camp for Muslim fighters. Also found were “propaganda terrorist material, military survival instructions, geographic charts and several CDs.”

The four men arrested came from Novi Pazar, which has been considered the nerve center of Wahhabi extremism in this poor and neglected western corner of Serbia.

According to AFP, “Western intelligence reports leaked recently have suggested that Sandzak, as well as Muslim-dominated regions in neighboring Bosnia, could be an ideal recruiting ground for the so-called “white al-Qaeda” - Muslims with Western features who could easily blend into European or US cities to execute attacks.”

Way back in 2003, Balkanalysis.com warned that the independence of Montenegro - which would divide the Sandzak between Serbia and Montenegro, giving irredentist Muslims a “cause” to push for “unification” - was a threat to Balkan stability. Montenegro has now been independent for less than a year and this warning is now being born out.