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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Belgium foils al-Qaeda jailbreak | Belgium foils al-Qaeda jailbreak |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Fourteen people have been arrested in Belgium after authorities foiled a plot to free an al-Qaeda member arrested in September 2001, officials say. | |
| The suspects, detained in police raids, were described as Islamic militants. | |
| They were seeking to free Tunisian Nizar Trabelsi, jailed in Belgium for planning to attack US targets. | |
| An official said the plot involved explosives and that security was being stepped up in the capital over fears of a "possible attack". | An official said the plot involved explosives and that security was being stepped up in the capital over fears of a "possible attack". |
| Belgium hosts the main European Union institutions and Nato headquarters, as well as a raft of multi-national companies. | |
| Suicide bomber | |
| "They were planning to use weapons and explosives to free him... These means could be employed for another use," officials said. | "They were planning to use weapons and explosives to free him... These means could be employed for another use," officials said. |
| The announcement was made by federal prosecutors and officials from the country's crisis co-ordination centre, at a hastily arranged news conference. | The announcement was made by federal prosecutors and officials from the country's crisis co-ordination centre, at a hastily arranged news conference. |
| Trabelsi, who used to play professional football in Germany, was jailed for 10 years in 2003 for planning to blow up a military base in Belgium housing US soldiers. | |
| The court heard that Trabelsi had met al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden several times in Afghanistan and asked to become a suicide bomber. | |
| He said he was ordered to go to Belgium, pack a bomb into a lorry and blow it up - with himself at the wheel - next to the canteen of the Kleine Brogel military base about 100 miles (160km) from Brussels. | |
| But Trabelsi was arrested in Brussels two days after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. | |
| Defence lawyers said the court had ignored the remorse Trabelsi had shown during the trial and had made an example of him after the US terror attacks. |