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Germany identifies second suitcase bomb suspect

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 August 2006, 11:30 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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