Germany Deports Jordanian Suspect
March 1, 2005Germany has deported to Jordan a man suspected of links to Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the interior minister in the southern state of Bavaria said on Monday. The Jordanian national, identified as Isam Ali Mohamed A., was forced to return home on Saturday on suspicion of working with the radical Islamic group al Tawhid, Interior Minister Günther Beckstein said in a statement. Beckstein said that the man had trained in 2000 at an al Tawhid military camp in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network was based, and had been raising money for both groups during his time in Germany. Al Tawhid is led by Zarqawi, who is believed to be responsible for a string of attacks, kidnappings and beheadings of hostages in Iraq. Germany became an unwitting rear-base for some of al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 suicide hijackers and the authorities here been particularly vigilant in the hunt for extremists since then.