Arrests made under anti-terrorism legislation in Ontario may be part of a bigger international effort to track Islamic extremists communicating through the internet — a network purportedly tied to al-Qaeda in Iraq.
A report published in the Times of London on Wednesday alleges a chain of links that connect the network to some of the 17 suspects arrested under Canada's Anti-terrorism Act in Toronto, Mississauga and Pickering on the weekend.
A nine-month investigation, code-named "Operation Mazhar," uncovered a web-based network set up by computer experts in the British capital, the Times said.
They were working with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born militant who leads the group al-Qaeda in Iraq, the paper said.
Quoting security sources in Britain, the Times said extremist cells in Canada, Britain, the United States, Bosnia and Denmark have been using the internet to plot attacks.
Police and intelligence agents in eight countries worked through a "forest" of e-mails and intercepted telephone calls that led to the arrest of up to 30 men, the paper said.
Most of the suspects never met, but were instead recruited via the internet.
Al-Zarqawi trying to recruit Western converts
The Time's report said al-Zarqawi was trying to recruit Western converts to Islam because they would be able to blend in with European and North American populations more easily than his current group of insurgents.
The first arrests in the operation came in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 2005, with the arrest of an 18-year-old Serb who had converted to Islam. A 20-year-old Dutch-born man, a cache of explosives and a suicide belt were also seized. Officials say the men were targeting the British Embassy in the capital, Sarajevo.
Within hours of those arrests, British police nabbed three men in London, including a computer expert who had been in touch with the other men.
FBI alleges links between U.S. men and Canadians
The FBI alleges the British cell swapped e-mails with two men in Atlanta, Ga.
Those men, who were arrested in March by FBI agents on terrorism-related charges, are said to have ties with the 17 suspects in Canada.
The 12 men and five youths arrested on June 2-3 in Ontario face charges on terrorism-related activities.
Police allege some of the accused planned to make bombs to attack targets in Ontario. None of the allegations has been proven in court.
The lawyer of one of the suspects said Monday that his client is accused of being part of a plot to storm Parliament, behead the prime minister and attack a number of sites, including the CBC building in Toronto.
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