Terrorists penetrating north Europe?

The Norwegian government and police have not announced the nature of Friday's bomb and gun attacks, although party leaders, politicians and mainstream media have described the attacks as terrorist ones.

Experts expressed their doubts about the claim that there was only one murderer behind the attacks, in regard to the modus operandi of the crime and the damage it caused.

They said the possibilities can not be ruled out that international terrorist organizations or foreign forces were involved in the attacks.

Britain's newspaper The Times quoted Norwegian sources as saying that the Norwegian security department was investigating whether the attacks were the suspect's individual behaviors or there was a larger terrorist network behind him, domestic extremist groups or traditional Islamic forces.

German weekly Der Spiegel reported on its website that several anti-terror experts believed that the attacks in Norway were terrorist operations, and were likely linked to religious extremist forces.

The magazine said al-Qaida warned that it would launch retaliation attacks on North Europe in 2005 when a Denmark newspaper published the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. A botched bomb attack took place in the Swedish capital Stockholm last December and the bomber was killed.

Other analysts believed the attacks targeting Norway were likely linked to Norway's participation in NATO's military operations in Afghanistan and Libya.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had warned that Europeans are likely to suffer terror attacks if NATO does not stop its military operations against Libya.