Police released the six other suspects after questioning them Tuesday, but anti-terrorism sources said they could be arrested again as investigators wade through a large quantity of evidence. In keeping with strict privacy laws, authorities did not release any names.
In announcing the arrests, police cited cooperation with a number of foreign intelligence agencies during a long, labor- intensive investigation. But because of Denmark's tough civil rights protections and mixed record on terrorism prosecution, police will be under pressure to answer questions about two key issues: the alleged target of the accused plotters and the nature of their supposed ties to Al Qaeda.
Sharf pointedly avoided confirming whether the attack would have been carried out in Denmark, thereby leaving open the scenario of a plot staged for execution in a neighboring country.
In addition, he did not reveal whether the police had determined that the suspects traveled overseas to meet with Al Qaeda figures or communicated with them by phone or the Internet.
The recurring pattern in a string of attacks and plots in Britain in recent years has involved British extremists, mostly of Pakistani origin, heading to Pakistan and being groomed for strikes back home.
Elsewhere in Europe, most plots and attacks have involved ties to masterminds and trainers active in North Africa or the Middle East.
If Al Qaeda in Pakistan played a role in the Danish case, that would be a worrisome expansion of the network's reach.
The foreign connections in previous cases in Denmark have been less direct.
This year, a court in Bosnia-Herzegovina convicted two members of a Copenhagen-based cell of preparing a bomb attack in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, while one accomplice was convicted here and a judge overturned the jury convictions of several others.
Those militants were part of a young but ferocious network dominated by a Moroccan based in London who used his computer expertise to become a leading propagandist and cyber-operative for Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq. The Moroccan was also convicted this year.
In another Danish case, a trial is to begin here today of four young Muslim men from Denmark's third-largest city, Odense, on charges of plotting an attack with explosives found in the garden of one defendant. That group was allegedly a multiethnic homegrown cell with minimal foreign connections.
Also this year, a court accused Said Mansour, a Moroccan extremist ideologue based in Denmark, of with having ties to top European Al Qaeda figures, many of whom were jailed in crackdowns after the Sept. 11 attacks. Mansour was convicted of spreading propaganda promoting terrorism.
Denmark is seen as a potential target of Islamic terrorism because of its military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and because of the publication in a Danish newspaper in 2005 of caricatures seen by some Muslims as insulting to the prophet Muhammad.
The upcoming anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks also could have had an influence on the timing of the raids.
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rotella@latimes.com
Special correspondent Hajjaj reported from Copenhagen and Times staff writer Rotella from Madrid.
