Islamic terror groups are becoming increasingly active in Germany and coordinating with militants across Europe to recruit fighters to join the insurgency in Iraq, equipping them with fake passports, money and medical supplies, security officials say. One of the best examples of the cross-continent cooperation involves an Algerian man arrested in Germany and now on trial in Italy for allegedly helping Muslims from Somalia, Egypt, Iraq and Morocco recruit some 200 militants from around Europe to fight in Iraq. European anti-terrorist officials have estimated that perhaps a few hundred militants have gone to Iraq as a result of recruiting efforts on the continent, mostly Muslims whose families immigrated from the Middle East or North Africa. Authorities alleged the network raised an unspecified amount of money, produced fake passports and recruited people for jihad. "Germany is not the main target of militant Islamist operations — today's line goes from Germany or other European countries to Iraq," said Rolf Tophoven, an expert at the Essen-based Institute for Terrorism Research and Security Issues. "They try to recruit and bring potential suiciders — potential terrorists — together and they will send them from Germany to Iraq to fight against the allied forces under the leadership of the United States."
There's only sketchy evidence that any of the recruited radicals have returned to Europe from fighting in Iraq, but that remains a top fear, Tophoven said. "The big threat is that they will eventually come back to European countries and they will come back with an image, with a reputation as heroes who fought the unbelievers, as it was in the war against the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan," he said. "If they do, they come back from Iraq trained, they know how to fight, they know how to do an ambush, how to make a bomb, and so on, and intelligence is afraid of these developments."