The Standard (HK) : Germans `crack huge bomb plot'

Germans `crack huge bomb plot'

David McHugh | ASSOCIATED PRESS | September 06, 2007

Three suspected Islamic terrorists from an al-Qaeda-influenced group nursing a "profound hatred of US citizens" were arrested on suspicion of plotting imminent, massive bomb attacks targeting Americans in Germany, prosecutors said yesterday.

The three men - two German converts to Islam and a Turkish citizen linked to a group based in Central Asia - had 700 kilograms of hydrogen peroxide, or enough to make a bomb with the explosive power of 550kg of TNT, prosecutors said.

"We were able to succeed in recognizing and preventing the most serious and massive bombings," said federal prosecutor Monika Harms, calling it "a good day for security in Germany."

She declined to name specific targets but said the suspects had an eye on institutions and establishments frequented by Americans in Germany, including discos, pubs and airports.

But citing security sources in Berlin, broadcaster Suedwestfunk said Frankfurt International Airport and United States' Ramstein Air Base were among targets.

Germany's elite GSG-9 anti- terrorist unit arrested two suspects at a vacation home in central Germany on Tuesday. A third suspect fled through a bathroom window but was apprehended about 300 meters away.

The suspects, appearing yesterday at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, were ordered held pending trial.

Officials said the hydrogen peroxide solution, stored in a hideout, easily could have been mixed with other additives to produce a powerful bomb.

"This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid bombings," said Joerg Ziercke, head of the Federal Crime Office.

The three suspects first came to the attention of authorities because they had been caught observing a US military facility in Hanau, near Frankfurt, at the end of 2006. Police were searching an Islamic information center in the town of Ulm in Baden-Wuerttemburg.

Prosecutors said three had undergone training at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union and had formed a German cell of the al-Qaeda- influenced group. The Islamic Jihad Union is described as a Sunni Muslim group based in Central Asia that is an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an extremist group with origins in that country.

"This group distinguishes itself through its profound hatred of US citizens," Ziercke said.

The three had no steady work and were collecting unemployment benefits while their main occupation was the plot, investigators said.

It was another alarming turn of events following a failed train bombing last year and warnings that Germany's troop deployment in Afghanistan could make it vulnerable. German and American officials have warned of the possibility of a terrorist attack.

In July 2006, two gas bombs were placed on German commuter trains but did not explode. Officials said that attack was motivated by anger over cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. Several suspects are on trial in Lebanon, and a Lebanese man has been charged in Germany.

Wolfgang Bosbach, a top legislator from Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democrats, noted the upcoming sixth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, as well as deliberations by the German parliament in the next few weeks over whether to extend its troop mandates in Afghanistan.

"We are in a highly sensitive period," he said.

News of the arrests came a day after Denmark's intelligence service arrested eight alleged Islamic militants around Copenhagen with links to senior al- Qaeda terrorists, saying it had thwarted a major attack.

Ziercke said that there were similarities to the group arrested in Denmark, but no direct connection has been established.