Sarajevo, July 08: Nato troops in Bosnia are investigating allegations of a plot to kill the US commander of the stabilisation force during a visit to Mostar at the weekend after a man armed with a sniper gun was arrested during a security sweep, a SFOR spokesman said today. Police in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar identified the man as AK, aged 31, and said he was carrying a 9 mm machinegun equipped with a silencer, sniperscope and ammunition.

The man was arrested Saturday just before lieutenant- General John Sylvester, commander of the 19,000 troops in Bosnia, arrived in Mostar to meet with the town's mayor and pay a visit to Spanish troops serving in the area.

In a statement, Mostar police said it was looking into a link between the discovery of the "sophisticated weaponry" and Sylvester's visit to Mostar. A police source in Mostar identified the man as Adnan Kadric, a member of a crime ring based in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, and said authorities had ordered that he remain in custody for eight days.

He said Kadric denies any wrongdoing, saying that he had bought the gun in the nearby town of Posusje and planned to deliver it to Zenica.

But the Croatian daily Vecernji list reported today that Kadric was "leader of a terrorist organisation in Zenica." Citing sources from Sfor and UN's international police in Bosnia, the daily described Kadric as "an international terrorist, who has recently resided in Germany and Netherlands, where he was slightly wounded in a clash with Russian mafia three months ago."

Bureau Report