The football World Cup to be held in South Africa will be safe despite threats from Al Qaeda, the organising committee has said.
Any move to disrupt the event would be unsuccessful, Danny Jordaan, chief of the local organising committee (LOC), was quoted as saying by BuaNews.
“It’s not going to happen,” he said.
Jordaan’s comments came after a group Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) warned international visitors not to come to South Africa as their safety would not be guaranteed.
More than 30,000 police officers are being recruited and trained specifically for strategic deployment during the tournament, Jordaan said.
Interpol will also mount a joint intelligence gathering operation during the World Cup to ensure that the tournament concludes without any major security threats.
Al Qaeda’s north African branch had warned Thursday that it will attack the international event which kicks off June 11 in Johannesburg.
“All those countries are part of the Zionist-Crusader campaign against Islam,” Al Qaeda said in the Islamic Maghreb statement published Thursday in the jihadist online magazine ‘Mushtaqun Lel Jannah’.