Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Mosques, homes, & shops raided as German police break up terror network Mosques, homes, & shops raided as German police break up terror networkcomputers and false documents confiscated - 22 arrested
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=600266 Raids on mosques broke terror network, claim German police By Tony Paterson in Berlin 13 January 2005 Mosques across Germany were raided yesterday as police arrested 22 Islamic radicals suspected of aiding terrorism through money laundering and issuing fake documents. State prosecutors in Munich said that the long-planned sweep had disrupted a major supply network that would have provided logistical support to terrorist groups. Those arrested included men and women from the Middle East, North Africa, Bulgaria and Germany, all of whom were suspected of being linked to Islamic extremist organisations including al-Qa'ida. They said that, in an operation involving more than 800 officers, police had raided 50 addresses across Germany and confiscated faked passports, computer data and militant Islamic propaganda that called for recruits to join a holy war or jihad against the West. The bulk of arrests were made in the cities of Ulm and Neu Ulm in southern Germany. "The network raised funds to pursue their ideological goals and equipped people with false documents to facilitate illegal residency in Germany," a state prosecutor's statement said. "Those detained are also accused of spreading racial hatred and recruiting people for a jihad," it added. The chief state prosecutor, August Stern, said several of those arrested were linked to the militant extremist organisations Asnar-el-Islam and El Tauhid and that one of those detained had been trained at an al-Qa'ida camp in Pakistan. "We suspect those arrested to be members of a criminal organisation with international contacts," he said. But police said they had found no evidence indicating that the group planned to carry out a terrorist attack. Mr Stern said the objective of the raids had been to destroy the logistical base of the network. Police said that the raids focused on mosques that the group had used as a cover for its operations and on a series of call centres, where it was possible to telephone abroad at cheap rates. They said another chief target was an Islamic information centre in the southern city of Ulm which had been under police surveillance for more than three years. Yesterday's raids followed a police operation in December which is alleged to have thwarted an attempt to assassinate Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi Prime Minister, during a brief visit to Berlin. Germany stepped up its attempts to clamp down on Islamic extremism after the 11 September hijackers were found to have organised their attacks on New York and Washington while living undetected for years in Hamburg where they were regarded as mere students. The Germans' failure to identify the al-Qa'ida cell invoked criticism from America. Last year, Otto Shily, the Interior Minister, announced that the fight against Islamic terrorism was at the top of the government's security agenda. Germany subsequently extradited the Islamic militant, Metin Kaplan to Turkey after he was found guilty of disseminating fundamentalist propaganda during his sermons. Mr Kaplan had lived for decades in Cologne. German federal prosecutors said that one of those arrested in yesterday's raids was a Libyan citizen accused of supporting an al Tauhid terrorist cell in Germany which had planned attacks on Jewish premises in the country. The Libyan was suspected of having supplied the cell with a pistol. ---------------------- http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0113terror-germany13.html Germany arrests 22 in terrorist-aid case Matthew Schofield BERLIN - German police stormed mosques, shops and homes across the country Wednesday, arresting 22 people suspected of financing and providing illegal documents to terrorists. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4167523.stm German police target 'Islamists' German authorities say they have detained 22 suspected Islamic radicals in massive raids across the country.More than 700 police officers swooped on addresses - including apartments and mosques - in five states, arresting 17 men and five women. Some are alleged to be members of a radical Islamic network suspected of aiding terrorists through money laundering and falsifying documents. The raids are the result of a long-term inquiry, the authorities said. Germany has made fighting alleged Islamist terror cells a key security priority, says the BBC's Ray Furlong in Berlin. He said the country was shocked to find that some of the suicide hijackers in the 11 September 2001 attacks were based in the northern city of Hamburg. 'Jihad recruiters' Eleven people have been arrested and another 11 taken into provisional custody in Wednesday's raids, police said. The suspects, aged from 17 to 46, include German citizens as well as Egyptian, Tunisian, Algerian, Libyan and Bulgarian nationals. They are alleged to have raised funds to "pursue their ideological goals", according to prosecutors in Munich - who co-ordinated the raids. The network "equipped people with false documents, making possible illegal residency in the country and abroad, and supported other like-minded group", the prosecutors said in a statement. "They are also accused of spreading their beliefs of racial hatred and recruiting people for jihad [holy war]." The raids uncovered propaganda material, faked and blank passports and visa forgeries, the investigators said. The Islamic network is believed to be based in the southern city of Ulm. The co-ordinated early morning raids took place in the states of Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, North Rhine Westphalia, North Rhine Westphalia, Hessen and Berlin. More than 50 buildings were searched, including private apartments, mosques and call centres. The authorities, which plan to release further details later, said their immediate target was a group of 20 suspects. The latest arrests followed an operation in December which allegedly thwarted an assassination attempt on visiting Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, our correspondent says. |