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BERLIN (AP) -- Islamic extremists accused of
plotting to kill Iraq's prime minister in Germany
are smuggling battle-hardened fighters from Iraq to
Europe, raising a potential new terrorist threat on
the continent, according to German officials.
More than 20 alleged supporters of Ansar al-Islam
have been arrested in Europe in the past year as
authorities move against the group that has links
with al-Qaida and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
who's been leading bloody attacks against U.S.
forces in Iraq.
Ansar al-Islam is suspected of spiriting dozens of
fired-up young Muslims to Iraq to join the
insurgency, but the latest raids in Germany - the
most spectacular yet against the group - heightened
concerns that the organization also could pose a
menace outside Iraq, too.
Acting on intelligence suggesting the group planned
to attack Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in
Berlin, police on Dec. 3 arrested three Iraqis
believed to be Ansar al-Islam members.
Arrest warrants for the three plot suspects -
identified only as Ata R., Mazen H. and Rafik Y. -
were based on wiretaps and intelligence that one of
them apparently cased Berlin locales on Allawi's
itinerary. But investigators have turned up no
weapons or bomb-making materials, and Allawi's name
was never mentioned in the men's coded telephone
conversations.
A top security official in Hamburg, Heino Vahldieck,
said German authorities were right to strike quickly
despite what appears to be the lack of hard
evidence. Prosecutors are preparing charges of
belonging to a terrorist group against the three
men.
"You can wind up waiting too long once too often,"
Vahldieck told The Associated Press.
About 100 Ansar al-Islam supporters are in Germany
alone, officials say. Mullah Krekar, the group's
spiritual head, has lived for years as a refugee in
Norway, and investigators believe that the group has
also recruited volunteers in Italy and Britain.
Estimates of its total membership range between
about 500 and 1,000.
"It's right up there on the list of threats," said
Michael Ziegler, a spokesman for Bavarian security
authorities. "The foiled attack on Allawi shows that
this group must be considered dangerous also for
Europe."
Germany's pre-emptive action to protect Allawi
contrasts with the March 11 train bombings in
Madrid, Spain, and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the
United States: A key Madrid suspect had been under
surveillance long before, and three of the four
Sept. 11 suicide pilots - including lead hijacker
Mohamed Atta - lived and studied in Hamburg
undetected by authorities.
"The security agencies are generally acting a bit
earlier now, even at the risk of weaker evidence,"
said Kai Hirschmann, deputy head of the Institute
for Terrorism Research in Essen.
"The problem all over Europe is that they can only
do something when there's specific evidence of an
attack," he said. "If people just sit around and
talk about jihad, there's relatively little you can
do."
Ansar al-Islam was formed in the Kurdish parts of
Iraq and is believed to include Arab al-Qaida
members who fled the U.S.-led invasion of
Afghanistan in late 2001. Its bases along the
Iranian-Iraqi border were bombed at the start of the
U.S.-led war in Iraq that began in March 2003 and
the group's members scattered, some to Europe,
authorities believe.
Al-Zarqawi, whose followers in Iraq have claimed
responsibility for numerous car bombings and
beheadings of foreigners, is believed to have played
a key role in the group after fleeing Afghanistan,
where he studied explosives and other skills in al-Qaida
camps.
Europe's openness to refugees and civil-rights
guarantees often make it hard for authorities to
crack down on terror suspects. But they have stepped
up pressure on Ansar al-Islam over the past year,
leading to the string of arrests in Germany, Italy,
Spain, Turkey and Sweden.
How many Europe-based volunteers have gone to fight
in Iraq is unclear, but authorities already are
tracking the threat of Islamic fighters returning to
Europe with experience in waging holy war in Iraq -
much the way others in the past returned hardened
from Chechnya.
"If someone is involved in an attack in Iraq, I am
virtually 100 percent convinced that he'll also
carry out an attack over here if ordered to do so,"
Guenter Beckstein, the top state security official
in Bavaria, said in a telephone interview.
European security officials have given little hard
evidence about militants returning from Iraq. But
there are a few known cases of recruiting. One
suspected Iraqi recruiter, Amin Lokman Mohammed, is
expected to go on trial in Germany next year,
charged with organizing trips to Iraq for at least a
dozen possible suicide bombing missions against U.S.
troops.
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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