Norway: Terror attack thwarted in 1979

A television documentary will finally provide confirmation that a massive terrorist plot was thwarted in Oslo in the summer of 1979.

Police have confirmed that there was a plan to blow up the Israeli and Egyptian embassies in Oslo, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.

The two embassies are located in the densely populated and affluent Frogner district of Oslo, and were to have been blown up using vans filled with dynamite, the NRK documentary reports.

According to the program to be aired by NRK2 Spekter on Wednesday evening, two Norwegian criminals were approached at a nightclub in the Grand Hotel by a Tunisian named Ali.

The Norwegian pair were offered NOK 1 million each, to be paid by Libyan intelligence, to drive the explosive filled vans into position.

The plot was allegedly inspired by discontent after the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt earlier that year - the Camp David pact between the two countries and the USA, to promote a peaceful solution to Mideast tensions.

After nearly three months of surveillance and wire-tapping, the central figures in the plot were arrested and the Arab terrorist later expelled to Tunisia. Police never found the dynamite, and the matter was kept secret.

Source: Aftenposten (English)

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