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| Bosnia police raid Muslim village | Bosnia police raid Muslim village |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Bosnian police have launched a massive operation against a conservative Muslim community, to prevent what they called attempts to destabilise the country. | Bosnian police have launched a massive operation against a conservative Muslim community, to prevent what they called attempts to destabilise the country. |
| Hundreds of police officers raided the mountain village of Gornja Maoca in northern Bosnia. | Hundreds of police officers raided the mountain village of Gornja Maoca in northern Bosnia. |
| The village is home to Bosnian followers of Wahhabism, a strict form of Sunni Islam. | |
| Some 600 officers surrounded the village before raiding it on Monday morning, the spokesman added. | Some 600 officers surrounded the village before raiding it on Monday morning, the spokesman added. |
| It was the biggest police operation in Bosnia since its 1992-1995 war, said the state prosecutor's office. | It was the biggest police operation in Bosnia since its 1992-1995 war, said the state prosecutor's office. |
| Security forces closed off the isolated northern village, which is near the northern city of Brcko and has around 100 residents, while the raid was in progress. | Security forces closed off the isolated northern village, which is near the northern city of Brcko and has around 100 residents, while the raid was in progress. |
| "The goal of this operation... is to identify people accused of endangering the territorial integrity of Bosnia-Hercegovina, threatening the constitutional order and promoting national, racial and religious hatred," Boris Grubesic, the prosecutor's spokesman, told AFP news agency. | "The goal of this operation... is to identify people accused of endangering the territorial integrity of Bosnia-Hercegovina, threatening the constitutional order and promoting national, racial and religious hatred," Boris Grubesic, the prosecutor's spokesman, told AFP news agency. |
| Local radio reported that several people were arrested - including Wahhabi cleric Nusret Imamovic - and ammunition was seized, but this was not confirmed by police. | |
| Security threats? | |
| Gornja Maoca had been under surveillance for some time, says BBC Balkans correspondent Mark Lowen. | |
| The raid was carried out by officers from both of the semi-autonomous entities that make up Bosnia: the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, and the Bosniak-Croat Federation, of Bosnia-Hercegovina. | |
| During Bosnia's war, a large number of foreign Islamic fighters, or mujahideen, came from the Middle East to assist soldiers from the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) army, our correspondent adds. | |
| Many stayed in the country and gained Bosnian nationality. After some were identified as security threats, they were stripped of their citizenship and deported. | |
| Originating in the Arabian peninsula, Wahhabism forms the basis for the ideology followed by al-Qaeda and the Taleban. |