Haole
12-30-2003, 01:41 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42194-2003Dec30.html
German Military Hospital Sealed After Terror Threat
Radical Islamic Group Planning Car Bomb, According to U.S. Intelligence
BERLIN, Dec. 30 -- A German military hospital in Hamburg was sealed off Tuesday after German officials received a tip from U.S. intelligence that a radical Islamic group was planning a car bomb attack on the facility, where in the past American soldiers have received treatment, according to local officials in Hamburg.
Ansar al-Islam, a transnational organization that has cooperated with al Qaeda and been implicated in attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, was planning a suicide attack on the facility, according to Dirk Nockemann, a local senator in charge of internal affairs in the city-state.
The alert at the hospital came as European authorities disclosed a fourth letter bombs in a series mailed from the Italian city of Bologna to European Union leaders and institutions over the last four days. There was no sign of connection with the reported plot at the hospital; police suspect that European anarchists are behind the letter bomb campaign.
In Hamburg, the area around the 300-bed hospital was closed off Tuesday as police searched vehicles, including ambulances, but the hospital was not evacuated. A police spokesman said no U.S. troops were currently receiving treatment at the facility, which also has public beds and a teaching clinic for emergency medicine.
In a statement, the Hamburg police said they had received "concrete evidence about people who want to carry out attacks on the hospital with a car bomb. . . . Those potentially involved are believed to be from an Islamic terrorist background."
Hamburg officials said some of those suspected of involvement in the reported attack were from Europe, but not Hamburg, where three of the suicide pilots who organized the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States were long-time residents.
Ansar al-Islam, which has had a network of operatives and supporters in Europe for years, has also been recruiting young Muslim men from Europe for suicide attacks on U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq itself, according to European officials.
Nockemann said the group had also considered an attack on U.S. airbases in Germany, but U.S. military officials said they had not received information on that potential threat.
The fourth letter bomb was discovered Tuesday in the Hague at the headquarters of Eurojust, an organization involved in the fight against organized crime. The book-sized parcel containing explosives was moved to a closed room where a Dutch bomb squad deactivated it, Dutch officials said.
On Monday, two more letter bombs were discovered at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt and the Dutch offices of the Europol police intelligence agency in the Hague. The letter at the central bank, overseer of the euro currency used in 12 EU countries, was addressed to bank president Jean-Claude Trichet.
Over the weekend, another parcel sent to the Bolgona home of European Commission President Romano Prodi caught fire when he opened it, but it did not explode. Just before Christmas, two small bombs made from pressure cookers and gas exploded in trash cans near Prodi's home.
A previously unknown group calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation claimed responsibility for the Dec. 22 explosions. The group denounced Prodi as a representative of a repressive "new European order."
Prosecutors in a number of European countries have opened investigations of the group, officials said.
German Military Hospital Sealed After Terror Threat
Radical Islamic Group Planning Car Bomb, According to U.S. Intelligence
BERLIN, Dec. 30 -- A German military hospital in Hamburg was sealed off Tuesday after German officials received a tip from U.S. intelligence that a radical Islamic group was planning a car bomb attack on the facility, where in the past American soldiers have received treatment, according to local officials in Hamburg.
Ansar al-Islam, a transnational organization that has cooperated with al Qaeda and been implicated in attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, was planning a suicide attack on the facility, according to Dirk Nockemann, a local senator in charge of internal affairs in the city-state.
The alert at the hospital came as European authorities disclosed a fourth letter bombs in a series mailed from the Italian city of Bologna to European Union leaders and institutions over the last four days. There was no sign of connection with the reported plot at the hospital; police suspect that European anarchists are behind the letter bomb campaign.
In Hamburg, the area around the 300-bed hospital was closed off Tuesday as police searched vehicles, including ambulances, but the hospital was not evacuated. A police spokesman said no U.S. troops were currently receiving treatment at the facility, which also has public beds and a teaching clinic for emergency medicine.
In a statement, the Hamburg police said they had received "concrete evidence about people who want to carry out attacks on the hospital with a car bomb. . . . Those potentially involved are believed to be from an Islamic terrorist background."
Hamburg officials said some of those suspected of involvement in the reported attack were from Europe, but not Hamburg, where three of the suicide pilots who organized the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States were long-time residents.
Ansar al-Islam, which has had a network of operatives and supporters in Europe for years, has also been recruiting young Muslim men from Europe for suicide attacks on U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq itself, according to European officials.
Nockemann said the group had also considered an attack on U.S. airbases in Germany, but U.S. military officials said they had not received information on that potential threat.
The fourth letter bomb was discovered Tuesday in the Hague at the headquarters of Eurojust, an organization involved in the fight against organized crime. The book-sized parcel containing explosives was moved to a closed room where a Dutch bomb squad deactivated it, Dutch officials said.
On Monday, two more letter bombs were discovered at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt and the Dutch offices of the Europol police intelligence agency in the Hague. The letter at the central bank, overseer of the euro currency used in 12 EU countries, was addressed to bank president Jean-Claude Trichet.
Over the weekend, another parcel sent to the Bolgona home of European Commission President Romano Prodi caught fire when he opened it, but it did not explode. Just before Christmas, two small bombs made from pressure cookers and gas exploded in trash cans near Prodi's home.
A previously unknown group calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation claimed responsibility for the Dec. 22 explosions. The group denounced Prodi as a representative of a repressive "new European order."
Prosecutors in a number of European countries have opened investigations of the group, officials said.