THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Three al-Qaeda operatives arrested in Germany on Friday had stockpiled explosives and were plotting atrocities with bombs packed with shrapnel to cause 'maximum damage', it is claimed.They are the first al-Qaeda members arrested in Germany since the 9/11 attacks were planned in Hamburg.
Prosecutors in the southern city of Karlsruhe said on Saturday the men arrested in Düsseldorf and Bochum were in the "experimental phase" of their planning and no specific target had been drawn up.
But people were allegedly the main target of their shrapnel bombs and one media report claimed that the Eurovision Song Contest, to be staged in Düsseldorf on May 14, was in their sights.
Co-operation between the CIA, the Moroccan secret service and Germany's Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) led to the arrests. The suspects had been under surveillance for months.
BKA chief Jörg Ziercke, said the men had been in Germany illegally since November last year when they received orders from al-Qaeda to carry out an atrocity which would have been in the locality where they were based.
Identified as the "Düsseldorf Cell", the ringleader is claimed to be a Moroccan, named only as Abdeladim K. He is accused of taking his orders from a higher official in the terror network based on the Afghan-Pakistan border.
The two others held are also Moroccan, one of whom also holds a German passport. » | Allan Hall, Berlin | Saturday, April 30, 2011
