MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Orthodox Muslim group” detected in Argentina

The Argentine government acknowledged Monday the entry into the country of members of an “orthodox Muslim group” but denied they were linked to international terrorism or were seeking to recruit members.

Cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez interviewed by local radio stations said that the presence of Islamic activists in Argentina was not linked to the Summit of the Americas, scheduled for November 4/5 in Mar del Plata.

"We've followed their actions, but none of them have anything to do with any such thing" he said in direct reference to hypothetical terrorist activities by the group, which Buenos Aires daily La Nacion last week linked to the Pakistan-based Jamaat Tabligh, a movement suspected of ties with Al Qaeda.

The entry of five separate groups comprising 26 members of Jamaat was detected by Argentine intelligence services, following alerts by counterparts in Spain and Italy, the newspaper reported Friday.

According to Spanish anti-terrorism experts, some members of the movement described as an Islamic missionary organization, are under investigation for their alleged participation in the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004, which killed 192 people.

Argentina is no stranger to Islamic extremist terrorism. Buenos Aires was the scene in 1992 and 1994 of two powerful bomb attacks, one at a Jewish community organization and another at the Israeli Embassy, which were blown to pieces leaving over 115 people dead.

La Nacion working on intelligence sources insists that the Jamaat groups were operating in the cities of Bahia Blanca, Laprida and Balcarce in Buenos Aires province, as well as in the provinces of Cordoba, in central Argentina, and Salta, in the northwest.

Apparently the Argentine government's strategy, reports La Nacion, is to show Jamaat Tabligh militants that they are being closely watched, and as part of the strategy, on July 22 seven Qataris and two Egyptians were arrested and later released in Balcarce and Laprida.

But Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa said that La Nacion's story was "nonsense plagued with errors". Meanwhile Interior Minister Anibal Fernandez pointed out that the government was well aware of the entry of a group of Muslims, adding that intelligence activities had been undertaken to determine if the new arrivals could cause "any kind of complication".

He said that the government was working to guarantee security for the coming hemispheric summit in Mar del Plata.

"It's the responsibility of the government to ensure all measures and actions are taken to guarantee security" and that the summit "takes place under the best conditions".