Norwegian police said Wednesday that three brothers were arrested on suspicion of “terrorist bombing” in the weekend blast at the US embassy in Oslo, which caused minor damage but no injuries.
The brothers, Norwegian citizens of Iraqi origin, were arrested in Oslo at 3:30 pm (1430 GMT) and police are investigating a motive, police prosecutor Christian Hatlow told a press conference.
Read moreMassive explosion rocks US embassy in Oslo, police hunt for perpetrators
“We’re still working from a number of assumptions. One of them is whether it was ordered by a government entity,” Hatlow said.
“It’s a US embassy – and it’s very natural given the security situation in the world today,” he said.
Hatlow said the investigation will try to determine exactly what roles the brothers, who are in their 20s and previously unknown to police, played.
“We believe one of them is the person who planted the bomb outside the embassy and the other two are complicit in the act,” Hutlow told reporters.
Hatlow said he was also not ruling out links to “criminal networks.”
‘Proxy Actors’
In its annual threat assessment, Norwegian security service PST said last month that Iran, which it considers one of the main threats to the country, could rely on “proxy actors”, including “criminal networks”.
On Tuesday, Iran’s ambassador in Oslo denied that his country had any involvement in the embassy blast.
“It is unacceptable that we are being singled out,” Alireza Jahangiri told Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang.
According to the police, the perpetrators of the bombings, described as “powerful”, may also have acted on their own motives.
US embassies in the Middle East have been put on high alert due to the US attack on Iran. Tehran has responded with several attacks targeting industrial and diplomatic facilities.
Read moreUS likely responsible for deadly Iran school strike after targeting error, report says
The blast took place at the entrance to the consular section of the embassy around 1am (0000 GMT) on Sunday.
Monday released two images from surveillance camera footage of a black-clad suspect wearing a hood over his head and a backpack.
Around the time of the incident, the video was uploaded to the Google Maps page for the US Embassy.
The video has since been removed to show Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli attack on Iran.
According to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, the man who uploaded the video wrote in Persian: “God is great. We are victorious.”
The police have started an investigation in this regard.
(With FRANCE 24 AFP)
(Tags to translate)Europe(T)Norway(T)USA(T)Iran(T)Embassy(T)Inspection
