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German Police Arrest Key Iraqi Terrorist in Munich

December 3, 2003
https://p.dw.com/p/4Ou2

Bavarian police arrested a member of a top Iraqi terrorist group following a swift operation at Munich's railway station on Wednesday. German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that 29-year-old Iraqi national Mohammed L, who stands accused of smuggling two fellow citizens into Germany, is suspected of being the operating head of the Ansar-e Islam terror cell in Munich and organizing the departure of up to a dozen people to Iraq in past months to serve as potential suicide bombers against American troops. Ansar-e Islam is believed to be an extremist outfit, which operates in Kurdish regions and is described by the U.S. government as being the link between the former regime of Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Intelligence sources in Germany believe that the group has about a hundred supporters in southern Germany, as well as cells in Berlin, Hamburg, Duisburg, Cologne and Frankfurt.