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Ten Islamists have been arrested in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany on suspicion of plotting a terror attack in Belgium, prosecutors say.
The suspects, who are all either Belgian, Dutch, Moroccan or Russian, were detained after an anti-terror operation across the three nations.
The same investigation has already led to arrests in Spain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, Belgian prosecutors said.
All are suspected of being Islamist fanatics planning pre-Christmas attacks.
The public prosecutor in Brussels said all those arrested "have connections to the Islamic terrorist scene".
He added that the probe focused on recruiters, would-be "jihadists" and the financing of a Chechen "terrorist organisation", Caucasus Emirate.
Seven suspects were arrested in Belgium, two in the Netherlands and one in Germany.
The Dutch prosecutors' office said police had arrested three men there at the request of the Belgian authorities and that an arrest had also been made in Austria.
It is thought a concrete plan had been made for an attack in Belgium, but a target has not yet been identified by authorities.
The raids were co-ordinated among several police and intelligence agencies.
They followed a months-long investigation that was launched by authorities in the northern Belgian city of Antwerp in late 2009.
It comes with Europe on its highest alert level for years, as intelligence sources believe al Qaeda wants to "go for broke" with a spectacular act of bloodshed ahead of the festive season.
Two members of a six-man commando squad are already believed to be in Germany where public buildings, including the Reichstag in Berlin, have seen a huge spike in security in recent days.
Germany fears al Qaeda is planning its onslaught using radicalised westerners to slip back into Europe following training in terror camps in Pakistan.
But a spokesman for the German interior ministry said the latest arrests were not connected to that security alert.
SKYNEWS
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