Author: Matthias Gebauer and Holger Stark
Publication: Spiegel Online
Date: May 30, 2006
URL: http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,418783,00.html
German authorities may have thwarted suicide
bomb attacks in Iraq by German women. According to intelligence sources, three
women were prevented from travelling to Iraq after one of them had announced
she planned to blow herself up in Iraq.
has learned that German intelligence agencies
have prevented three German women from travelling to Iraq in recent weeks.
The women, who have close contacts to the Islamist scene in Germany and at
least one whom has converted to Islam, came to the attention of intelligence
agencies after one of them had announced on an Internet site that she intended
to blow herself and her child up in Iraq.
After the Web posting were spotted, Germany's
domestic and foreign intelligence agencies mounted an intense search for the
three women. One of them was located in Berlin, the other two are believed
to come from southern Germany. The Berlin woman's child was taken away from
her and she has been put in a psychiatric clinic. The two other women were
also prevented from leaving Germany. One of them is also believed to have
a child.
It's not clear yet how serious the women were
about their claims and how far their plans for an attack had progressed. There
has been no official confirmation. Well-informed sources say the women have
had contacts with sympathizers of Ansar al Islam, a militant group linked
to al-Qaida and suspected of smuggling suicide bombers from Germany to Iraq.
The group is also suspected of raising money for the resistance to the US-led
forces in Iraq.
There have been several such cases in the
past and German security officials have long been worried that Islamic militants
are increasingly recruiting young Muslims with German passports for suicide
attacks.
It has become almost routine for foreign bombers
to be used in Iraq. But the use of European citizens could be a new and dangerous
trend. Last November a female Belgian convert blew herself up near Baghdad.
