Seven Muslims have been arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, police said.
Al Qaida put a $100,000 bounty on the head of cartoonist Lars Vilks in 2007 after a newspaper published his cartoon.
Mr Vilks, who lives in an isolated area of Sweden, was put under police protection after the threats were made against his life.
The four men and three women were detained at around 10am on Tuesday after an investigation involving European security agencies and the United States' CIA and FBI.
Gardai said the operation was also supported by members from National Support Services and the Republic's anti-terrorist Special Detective Unit.
The suspects, aged from their mid-20s to late 40s, were detained by gardai in Waterford and Cork for conspiracy to murder Mr Vilks in another jurisdiction as part of an intelligence-led probe.
Some of those arrested were originally from Algeria, Libya, the United States and Palestine and have been legally in Ireland for up to 10 years.
Senior gardai do not believe those arrested are members of Al Qaida and stressed there was no threat to Irish security.
It is understood at least one of the suspects is a naturalised Irish citizen while a number of others have attempted to claim asylum.
Mobile phones, personal documents, computers and discs were seized in raids on homes during the arrests.
Mr Vilks's controversial hand-drawn sketches, which outraged Muslims, appeared in the publication Nerikes Allehanda in August 2007.
At least two galleries had previously refused to exhibit the drawings, citing security fears.
Islamic tradition prohibits visual depictions of Muhammed, the founder of Islam.
Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was forced to enter the debate with ambassadors from 22 Islamic countries to try to calm tensions over the cartoon.
The row in Sweden echoed one in Denmark in 2005 when one of the country's top daily papers, Jyllands-Posten, printed 12 cartoons depicting Muhammad.
The seven suspects can be held for seven days.
© UTV News