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German police arrest five in raid on 'IS network'
[BBC] Five people linked to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group have been arrested in co-ordinated raids in Germany, including a senior Islamist figure, reports say.

Flats were raided in northern and western Germany and a mosque was searched near Hanover.

Among those arrested was an Iraqi who goes by the alias Abu Walaa, or "the preacher without a face".

Germany's NDR TV has identified him as Ahmad Abdelazziz A.

The raids came as a result of information from a 22-year-old jihadist who spent several months with IS in Syria before fleeing to Turkey, it said.

Before returning to Germany in late September, the man, named Anil O, gave an interview in which he referred to Abu Walaa as "IS's number one in Germany".

All five men held are suspected of recruiting jihadists for IS and providing help for their journey to the conflict zone. They deny any link to terrorism.

The mosque in Hildesheim
Hildesheim is a picturesque small city in northern Germany, which like many small cities in Germany is losing its youth to the opportunities of the nearest bigger city. There is a small Jewish community there, mostly elderly Germans and younger Russians, but their young people are also moving to Hannover. It is my mother's hometown.
at the centre of Tuesday's police raids has been highlighted by authorities before as heavily involved in radical Salafist Islam.

Abu Walaa, who was arrested just outside Hildesheim, became known as "the preacher without a face" because of a series of internet videos in which he appeared clothed in black with his back to the camera.

Last week, police in Berlin arrested a Syrian man on suspicion of receiving instructions from IS to carry out an attack in Germany.
Update from The Times of Israel at 9:50 a.m. ET:
“The five accused formed a pan-regional Salafist-jihadist network, with the accused Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A.” — a 32-year-old Iraqi — “taking on the leading role,” said a statement from the prosecutors’ office. “The aim of the network led by him is to send people to IS in Syria."

Turkish national Hasan C. and German-Serb Boban S. were allegedly tasked with teaching the recruits Arabic as well as indoctrinating them with Islamist teachings. While the group’s leader had the authority to approve and organize any departures to Syria, he allegedly left the actual implementation of the plans to the two other men detained Tuesday, German national Mahmoud O. and Cameroonian Ahmed F. Y.

At least one young man and his family had been sent by the network to join IS in Syria, prosecutors added.

The five men were arrested in the northern state of Lower Saxony and the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, German media reported.
Posted by: Besoeker 2016-11-08
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=472521