December 6, 2003	Saturday	Shawwal 11, 1424

LA PAZ (Bolivia), Dec 5: Bolivian police have detained 16 Bangladeshis on suspicion of links to terrorism following a tip from France that the group planned to strike US targets, officials said.

The United States on Friday warmly welcomed the detention of the 16 at Santa Cruz in southeast Bolivia, who police said had all been carrying false passports.

The official Bolivian News Agency said the French tip indicated that nine of those detained were planning to hijack a plane bound from La Paz to Buenos Aires, with a stopover in Santa Cruz, to use it to hit US targets.

“We congratulate the Bolivian police. They took quick, decisive action in response to the information provided by the French police,” a State Department official told AFP in Washington.

The arrests were part of a joint operation with French intelligence, Interior Minister Alfonso Ferrufino said after “Operation Ramadan” Thursday at Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz.

Ferrufino said French authorities had requested the 16 be detained, on information “that would link these people to terrorism.”

Nine of the Bangladeshis were in transit to Buenos Aires, and the other seven were seeking residency in the Andean nation.

Ferrufino said that while authorities were investigating, it was clear that in some cases there were irregularities in processing the Bolivian residence visas. The Bangladeshis are being held by police in Santa Cruz. Bolivian police carried out operations to arrest another 12 foreign nationals, according to the Bolivian News Agency.

Ferrufino would not comment on reports the men were planning to hijack an airliner, other than to say “that was the version that came from the French police. We cannot determine if that was going to happen or not.”

“We have no information to prove or disprove the theory that these individuals might be terrorists at this point,” the State Department official added.

Meanwhile, Argentine Defence Minister Jose Pampuro renewed the country’s terrorism alert following the Bolivia arrests.

Argentina stepped up security checks around the country last month after several warnings that a terrorist attack could be staged in Buenos Aires. The tips were from international intelligence services, to the effect that US, British or Spanish interests could be hit in Argentina.

Pampuro said that those detained in Bolivia had been in possession of tickets for Buenos Aires.

“We have to be on the alert. These are issues that nowadays are globalized and any city could be the target of a terrorist attack,” Pampuro said in Buenos Aires Friday.

A July 1994 bombing of a Jewish charities association in Buenos Aires, killed 85 people and injured another 300. The South American country has one of the largest Jewish communities in the Americas, estimated at around 300,000.

Argentine and Jewish leaders have long believed that Iran was behind the attack — a charge Tehran has repeatedly denied.

A March 1992, bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires killed 29 and injured 200.—AFP