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Police shoot man attacking Muhammad cartoonist

2010-01-04 20:58:18

By JAN M. OLSEN, Associated Press Writer Jan M. Olsen, Associated Press Writer

13 mins ago

COPENHAGEN Police shot a Somali man wielding an ax and a knife as he tried to

break into the home of an artist whose cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a

bomb-shaped turban outraged the Muslim world, the head of Denmark's

intelligence agency said Saturday.

Jakob Scharf said in a statement that a 28-year-old man with ties to al-Qaida

attempted to enter Kurt Westergaard's home in Aarhus Friday night. But

Westergaard pressed an alarm and police arrived minutes later.

The attack on the artist, whose rendering was among 12 that led to the torching

of Danish diplomatic offices in predominantly Muslim countries in 2006, was

"terror related," Scharf said. He said the man would be charged with attempted

murder.

Westergaard, whose 5-year-old granddaughter was in the home on a sleepover,

sought shelter in a specially made safe room when the suspect broke a window of

the home, said Preben Nielsen of the Aarhus police.

Officers arrived two minutes later and tried to arrest the assailant, who

wielded an ax at a police officer. The officer then shot the man in a knee and

a hand, authorities said. Nielsen said the suspect's life was not in danger.

The suspect's name was not released in line with Danish privacy rules.

"The arrested man has, according to PET's information, close relations to the

Somali terrorist group al-Shabab and al-Qaida leaders in eastern Africa,"

Scharf said. PET is Denmark's intelligence agency.

Scharf said without elaborating that the man is suspected of having been

involved in terror-related activities in east Africa. He had been under PET's

surveillance but not in connection with Westergaard, he said

The man, who had a permit to stay in Denmark, was to be charged Saturday with

attempted murder for trying to kill Westergaard and the police officer, Scharf

said.

It was unclear whether the suspect actually managed to get inside the home of

the 75-year-old cartoonist in Denmark's second largest city, 125 miles (200

kilometers) northwest of Copenhagen.

Westergaard could not be reached for comment. However, he told his employer,

the Jyllands-Posten daily, that the assailant shouted "revenge" and "blood" as

he tried to enter the bathroom where Westergaard and the child had sought

shelter.

"My grandchild did fine," Westergaard said, according to the newspaper's Web

edition. "It was scary. It was close. Really close. But we did it."

Westergaard was "quite shocked" but was not injured, Nielsen said.

Westergaard remains a potential target for extremists nearly five years after

he drew a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. The

drawing was printed along with 11 others in Jyllands-Posten in 2005.

The drawings triggered an uproar a few months later when Danish and other

Western embassies in several Muslim countries were torched by angry protesters

who felt the cartoons had profoundly insulted Islam.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for

fear it could lead to idolatry.

Westergaard has received death threats and is the subject of an alleged

assassination plot.

The case "again confirms the terror threat that is directed at Denmark and

against the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in particular," Scharf said.

In October, terror charges were brought against two Chicago men whose initial

plan called for attacks on Jyllands-Posten's offices. The plan was later

changed to just killing the paper's former cultural editor and Westergaard.

In 2008, Danish police arrested two Tunisian men suspected of plotting to

murder Westergaard. Neither suspect was prosecuted. One of them was deported

and the other was released Monday after an immigration board rejected PET's

efforts to expel him from Denmark.

Throughout the crisis, then-Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen distanced

himself from the cartoons but resisted calls to apologize for them, citing

freedom of speech and saying his government could not be held responsible for

the actions of Denmark's press.