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Germans say al-Qaeda Balkans network intact
Al-Qaida may have an intact terror network operating in the Balkans, German security officials say.Sources within Germany's Bundesnachrichsiendienst, or Federal Intelligence Service (BND) told the German news agency DDP that both the Madrid terrorists, and some of those who perpetrated the London bombings, had "contacts with Bosnia," DDP reported Monday. The BND sources told DDP that European intelligence services had "vague indications that another terror cell controlled from Bosnia is preparing a new attack on London". The King Fahd Mosque in Dobrinja, a suburb of Sarajevo, was described by the BND sources as "a hotbed" of violent extremists, DDP said. The "Balkans, particularly Bosnia and Kosovo" are now "a dangerous breeding-ground, presently under scarcely any observation, for Islamist terrorists," a BND source told DDP. Muslims from Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Britain are reportedly traveling there to be "fanaticized," he said. Other Western security sources told BND that two young Muslims accidentally blew themselves up in Kosovo recently when they were trying to test a mobile phone converted into a remote-controlled bomb. The men were said to have been attending a seminar organized by the Revival of Islamic Heritage. That's the same group that bankrolled the Bangladesh booms. One of the most well-known mujahidin leaders in the Balkans, Abdelkader Mokhtari, also known by the name of Abu El-Maali [names as published], who was said to be implicated in a failed bomb attack on U.S. soldiers in Germany at the end of the 1990s, has now reportedly returned to Bosnia, and found a safe bolt hole there, BND said. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-09-15 |
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