Three Iraqi migrants are being interrogated by Norwegian police over a blast that occurred at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo in the early hours of Sunday morning, which authorities are linking to events in the Middle East.
Three men are being held on suspicion of terrorist bombing, Norway police spokesman Christian Hatlo said at a press conference after arrests in Oslo on Wednesday evening. The unnamed men, who are migrants to Norway from Iraq who have Norwegian passports, are suspected of being behind the “very powerful” explosion at the U.S. Embassy in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Hatlo said in his statement that one of the men held is suspected of having planted the bomb, while the other two are accused of having assisted that perpetrator. The spokesman further stated that police are considering whether the plot to bomb the embassy, which police say they believe “has to do with the circumstances” in the Middle East was executed on the orders of a state actor.
Other options include the men being members of a criminal gang or unaffiliated lone wolves acting on their own initiative, reports the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).
Interrogations continued overnight. One brother has confessed to being solely responsible for the blast, high-profile Norwegian lawyer Øystein Storrvik said, stating: “We have been interrogating him this evening, and he confirms that he placed the bomb at the location… said that he did it alone”.
Police described the explosion at the Oslo embassy as a “very powerful” improvised explosive device, but noted the embassy suffered almost no damage as it is so well fortified. There were no injuries.
Similar remarks were made by police at a separate alleged attack against a U.S. facility this week, after the U.S. consulate in Toronto was shot at on Tuesday. A Canadian police spokesman reflected the building was so well protected, its inhabitants didn’t realise they’d been shot at, at the time, and the alarm wasn’t raised for an hour.
The incidents came after concern was raised about the prospect of long-discussed Iranian terror sleeper cells being activated in Western countries in response to the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes. It is already known that weapons caches connected to Iran front groups exist in European countries.
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