POLICE RAID WAHABBIST SHELTER, ONE KILLED

UNCLAS BELGRADE 000532 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KISL PTER KIRF PREL PHUM SR SUBJECT: POLICE RAID WAHABBIST SHELTER, ONE KILLED REF: Belgrade 372 ¶1. (U) Serbia's special Anti-terrorist unit and Gendarmerie cracked down on a group of Islamic extremists ("Wahabbies") in the village of Donja Trnava, 10 kilometers outside Novi Pazar, in the early morning of April 20. According to local media, police initiated a search of a house in a remote rural village near the ABL with Kosovo reachable only on foot, where a group of three Wahabbies were hiding. Once the group realized it was surrounded, some of the group tried to escape by throwing grenades at the police and running toward nearby woods. Police returned fire and killed Ismail Prentic, who press describe as a leader of Novi Pazar Wahabbies. During the action, a second member of the group, Senad Ramovic, was seriously injured. A third extremist, Safet Becirovic, was arrested. One police officer was injured. The Novi Pazar hospital reported that Ramovic went though surgery and is not in a life- threatening situation. The police officer was released after being treated for minor injuries. Police are still searching the crime scene, and our sources in the community and local police had no additional information as of this report. ¶2. (U) Press reports indicate the three men were the remaining members of a group located and arrested in a camp near Novi Pazar on March 17, 2007 (reftel). During that action, police arrested Mirsad Prenti (30),Fuad Hod'i (33),Vahid Vejselovi (23) and Senad Vejselovi (24) all from Novi Pazar, while one member of the group escaped. Police also discovered in the vicinity of the camp a cache of various weapons, ammunition and other military and medical equipment (septel). The four suspects were reportedly indicted for terrorism and conspiracy against the state and transferred to Belgrade Central Prison. The case itself was proclaimed a state secret. ¶3. (SBU) Meanwhile, on April 19 Novi Pazar Mufti Muamer Zukorlic sent a letter to President Tadic, PM Kostunica and all diplomatic missions in Belgrade in which he accused the state intelligence and security services (unspecified) of orchestrating an ongoing political campaign against the Islamic Community. Zukorlic also accused state authorities for their mild reaction to a Wahabbist attack on the Mosque in Novi Pazar in November, 2006. ¶4. (SBU) Comment: The praise Zukorlic had for the interior ministry following the initial cracking of this group was clearly short-lived. He told us in early April that aggressive law enforcement actions orchestrated by Belgrade raised tensions in Sandzak -- especially since the "100 or so" hard-line Muslim radicals in the region threatened moderate Islamic leaders in the Sandzak far more than they threatened the broader population of Serbia. Relations between official Belgrade and the Sandzak have historically been strained, owing in large part to the legacy of the Bosnia wars of the 1990's. Some in Novi Pazar are speculating that this morning's action was orchestrated by state security in order to attract attention to a radical Islamic element in Serbia and to connect it with the process of defining of Kosovo status. Such conspiratorial speculation is likely to continue in an unstable political atmosphere. POLT