Seven arrested over purported tract to kill cartoonist over Muhammad sketch World headlines The Guardian

Lars Vilks had a $100,000 annuity put on his head after he drew the Muhammad animation for internal journal Nerikes Allehanda. Photo: Harry Soremski/AFP/Getty

Irish military currently arrested 7 suspects over an purported tract to kill a Swedish artist who drew the Prophet Muhammad with the physique of a dog.

The aim of the purported gangland slaying was Lars Vilks, who had a $100,000 (£67,000) annuity put on his head by al-Qaida in 2007, with a 50% reward if Vilks was "slaughtered similar to a lamb" by carrying his throat cut. Another $50,000 was pronounced to have been put on the hold up of Ulf Johansson, editor-in-chief of Nerikes Allehanda, the internal journal that printed the cartoon.

The 4 men and 3 women, who were incarcerated at about 10am this morning, are in their mid-20s to late-40s and are being hold at stations in Waterford, Tramore, Dungarvan and Thomastown. Garda sources have reliable that a little of those arrested hold Irish citizenship and a series are from the Middle East. Some of those questioned have been reliable as converts to Islam.

The suspects are being hold underneath Ireland"s Criminal Justice Act 2007. Under Irish law they can be hold in control for up to 7 days.

Ireland"s anti-terrorist special investigator section was concerned in the operation. A orator for the force said: "Throughout the review Garda Síochána has been operative closely with law coercion agencies in the United States and in a series of European countries." The CIA and the FBI were concerned in the investigation.

Vilks" animation caused snub since dogs are deliberate soiled by regressive Muslims, and Islamic law in all opposes any work of art of the soothsayer for fright it could lead to idolatry.

The debate over cartoons depicting Muhammad began in 2005, when the Danish every day Jyllands-Posten printed twelve caricatures of the soothsayer after a children"s writer pronounced he could not find an illustrator for his book on the hold up of Muhammad.

The drawings sparked aroused protests opposite the Muslim world, culminating with the blazing of the Danish embassy in Damascus and the consulate in Beirut in Feb 2006.