German police nab suspected militants

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Originally published Wednesday, April 24, 2002

BERLIN -- Police arrested 11 suspected Islamic militants in raids across Germany on Tuesday, executing a crackdown on what authorities described as an extremist brotherhood active in Europe that recruits, trains and bankrolls fighters for a worldwide holy war.

Federal prosecutor Kay Nehm's announcement of a sweep against the Sunni Muslim and Palestinian movement known as Al Tawhid, or Divine Unity, made no immediate claims of a connection with Osama bin Laden's terrorist empire or the suicide hijackers thought to have plotted the Sept. 11 U.S. attacks from Hamburg.

But Nehm emphasized that investigation has just begun into the computer records, forged documents and other evidence seized in searches of 19 sites in Berlin, the industrialized Ruhr River area and several cities in the southern state of Bavaria. His description of the cell's operations evoked comparisons with those of the Hamburg terrorism suspects and their accomplices, who were reportedly part of an international network of bin Laden foot soldiers providing military training, refuge and falsified documents to those wanting to attack Western targets.

The move against the Al Tawhid cell, said to be headed by a 36-year-old Palestinian living in Essen, coincides with Germany's first prosecution of terrorism suspects in recent years in a trial in Frankfurt of five Algerians accused of plotting attacks in Strasbourg, France.

The Frankfurt defendants deny any connection with al-Qaida. But testimony from one of the accused Tuesday provided a window into the pockets of extremism that thrive in democratic European countries committed to broad individual freedoms.

The coordinated raids on Al Tawhid and Interior Minister Otto Schily's insistence on more aggressive investigation of an April 11 attack on a Tunisian synagogue indicate that authorities here are taking more concerted action to rout the scourge of terrorism from their midst.

Tuesday's arrests followed months of surveillance of the alleged Palestinian ringleader and his contacts, ARD television reported, citing unnamed sources involved in the investigation. The news report also claimed several of those arrested had undergone military training in Afghanistan during the rule of fundamentalist Taliban forces allied with bin Laden.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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