 Two men suspected of being al-Qaeda supporters have been remanded in custody by a German federal court in Karlsruhe, after they were arrested for allegedly plotting a suicide bombing in Iraq. Police say a 29-year-old Iraqi who had previously served as an al-Qaeda gunman in Afghanistan was believed to be recruiting for suicide attacks against US forces and the interim government in Iraq. A 31-year-old Palestinian medical student was believed to be the recruit who had agreed to "martyrdom" at the wheel of a car bomb.
German authorities say the Iraqi had attended al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan before the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, and had spent a year in Afghanistan afterwards fighting US forces. Prosecutors said there was no indication the men were planning attacks in Germany, but they seemed to have used Europe as a safe haven in much the same way as the pilots who led the 9-11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington. In the western German city of Mainz where the Iraqi, identified as Ibrahim Mohamed K., was arrested Sunday, a police spokesman admitted to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that K. had been vetted after the 2001 attacks, but police had missed warning signs. On SWR television, interior official Karl Peter Bruch said a tip- off from the public had led to months of surveillance of K. culminating in the arrest of the two men. Police discounted any connection with a visit to Mainz in four weeks by US President George W. Bush for talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. |