1998 World Cup terror plot

From March to May 1998, a terror plot against the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France was uncovered by European law enforcement. More than 100 people were arrested in seven countries as a result of the plot. Organised by the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and backed by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the plot is thought to have targeted the England–Tunisia match on 15 June 1998, and involved infiltrating the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille in order to attack players and spectators during the game, attack the hotel in Paris hosting the United States national team, and finally hijacking an aircraft and crashing it into the Civaux Nuclear Power Plant near Poitiers.

The original suspect of the plot was French-Algerian Farid Melouk, who had previously been sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison in France for his connection to the 1995 Paris Métro and RER bombings. Melouk had reportedly been tracked by intelligence services following his entry into Belgium, where he was found to be in contact with Ahmed Zaoui and a GIA-linked Brussels mosque. On 3 March, after two weeks of surveillance, fifty police officers stormed a house where Melouk was staying with others involved in the plot. Ten people including Swedish and Danish nationals were arrested in the 12-hour siege, amid a series of anti-terrorism raids in Belgium. Large amounts of liquid explosives were found during the raid, as well as detonators, a Kalashnikov rifle, several handguns and thousands worth of US dollars in cash. In addition, a large number of documents, brochures and maps relating to the World Cup were retrieved. More explosives were uncovered in a follow-up raid of another house.

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