The South African government reacted angrily Wednesday to warnings by the United States and Britain about possible imminent "terrorist" attacks by Islamic extremists in the country's major cities. Without naming the countries, a strongly-worded statement described the warnings as "alarmist" and said diplomatic action had been taken to register South Africa's "displeasure".
The US said Saturday it had received information that "terrorist groups" were planning to carry out attacks in upmarket shopping malls in South Africa during the Muslim holy month of Ramazan. Britain issued a similar alert two days later. "The information provided as a basis for the latest terror alerts on South Africa has been found to be very sketchy," the government said in a statement.