Germany fears terror strike because of role in Afghanistan
Germany fears terror strike because of role in Afghanistan
By Mark Landler
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune and The New York Times
Published June 23, 2007
FRANKFURT, Germany -- Germany faces a heightened threat of terrorist attacks because of its military involvement in Afghanistan, security officials here said Friday. The danger, they warned, is comparable to that in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
Three German residents believed to be radical Islamic militants have been arrested in Pakistan in recent days, said the Federal Criminal Police. Officials here suspect them of traveling to the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan to join terrorist training camps.
"This tells us that German interests are in danger of being attacked, for example, by suicide bombers," a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Christian Sachs, said by telephone.
Sachs said the authorities do not have concrete evidence of a terrorist plot being planned in Germany. But the police have tightened security at the borders and are scrutinizing people traveling to and from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
German soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan face the most immediate threat, officials said, citing an attack last weekend on a convoy outside Kabul that included vehicles from the German Embassy. No one was hurt.
Authorities gave few details about the German residents arrested in Pakistan, saying two had been under surveillance while at home and were viewed as potentially dangerous.
The authorities said they feared that the detained residents might have planned to return to Germany to carry out attacks. "We are following up all leads, and therefore I don't think there is any reason to panic," the deputy interior minister, August Hanning, said in Berlin. "But I do think that increased vigilance is needed."
Hanning likened the atmosphere to that in the summer before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States, "when obscure threats surfaced, which, as we know, became reality."
Several of the hijackers in that attack hatched their plot while posing as students in Hamburg.
The latest warning, which was amplified in public statements by the interior minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, and by the head of the Federal Criminal Police, Joerg Ziercke, is likely to fan the country's debate about its military operations, which now range from Africa to Central Asia.
Germany has 3,000 troops in Afghanistan, part of the NATO force that has battled a growing Taliban insurgency.
By Mark Landler
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune and The New York Times
Published June 23, 2007
FRANKFURT, Germany -- Germany faces a heightened threat of terrorist attacks because of its military involvement in Afghanistan, security officials here said Friday. The danger, they warned, is comparable to that in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
Three German residents believed to be radical Islamic militants have been arrested in Pakistan in recent days, said the Federal Criminal Police. Officials here suspect them of traveling to the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan to join terrorist training camps.
"This tells us that German interests are in danger of being attacked, for example, by suicide bombers," a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Christian Sachs, said by telephone.
Sachs said the authorities do not have concrete evidence of a terrorist plot being planned in Germany. But the police have tightened security at the borders and are scrutinizing people traveling to and from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
German soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan face the most immediate threat, officials said, citing an attack last weekend on a convoy outside Kabul that included vehicles from the German Embassy. No one was hurt.
Authorities gave few details about the German residents arrested in Pakistan, saying two had been under surveillance while at home and were viewed as potentially dangerous.
The authorities said they feared that the detained residents might have planned to return to Germany to carry out attacks. "We are following up all leads, and therefore I don't think there is any reason to panic," the deputy interior minister, August Hanning, said in Berlin. "But I do think that increased vigilance is needed."
Hanning likened the atmosphere to that in the summer before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States, "when obscure threats surfaced, which, as we know, became reality."
Several of the hijackers in that attack hatched their plot while posing as students in Hamburg.
The latest warning, which was amplified in public statements by the interior minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, and by the head of the Federal Criminal Police, Joerg Ziercke, is likely to fan the country's debate about its military operations, which now range from Africa to Central Asia.
Germany has 3,000 troops in Afghanistan, part of the NATO force that has battled a growing Taliban insurgency.
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 11:05 AM
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