Germany identifies second suitcase bomb suspect

BERLIN (Reuters) – German authorities have identified a
second suspect in failed bomb attacks on two German trains, the
federal prosecutors’ office said on Tuesday.

“The second suspect, who is being pursued on the basis of
publicly released video footage, has been identified. The
search continues,” said Frauke-Katrin Scheuten, spokeswoman for
the German Federal Prosecutors office. She gave no further
details.

Citing unnamed security officials, several German
television stations and news Web sites said the man was from
Lebanon, like the first suspect already in custody. The reports
also said he was living in the northern German city of Cologne.

According to a local Cologne newspaper, the Koelner
Stadt-Anzeiger, police raided the young man’s apartment early
on Tuesday but he was not there.

On Saturday, German police detained one of two men they
suspect came close to exploding makeshift bombs on two trains
in the cities of Dortmund and Koblenz last month. Officials
said he was a 21-year-old Lebanese student living in Germany.

The two men were caught on video cameras in Cologne’s train
station, dragging the suitcases containing the explosive
devices onto the trains. The suitcases were discovered
abandoned on the trains.

Investigators are also said they were looking into what
role the Imam Ali Mosque in the northern port city of Hamburg
could have played in the bomb plot. German authorities told
Reuters that a photo of the mosque was found in the apartment
of the arrested bomb suspect.

The Imam Ali Mosque was frequented by Mohammed Zammar, a
German-Syrian suspected of having links to the Hamburg cell of
al Qaeda responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Zammar was arrested in late 2001 and is currently being
held in Syria.

Police have said the bombs planted by the suspects — made
with propane tanks, gasoline bottles and crude detonating
devices — may have been part of a plot designed to show anger
over the Middle East crisis.