German Commandos Storm Jet, Terror Suspects Seized
September 26, 2008
GERMAN police have arrested two terrorist suspects on board a Dutch airline, minutes before it was due to take off from Cologne-Bonn airport for Amsterdam.
Police arrestd the men at 6:55 am (1455 AEST), police spokesman Frank Scheulen said.
A 23-year-old Somali and a 24-year-old German citizen of Somali origin were arrested, said Scheulen, spokesman for North Rhine-Westphalia state police.
Media reports said the two men had left notes in their apartments saying they were prepared to die in “holy war” and that they had been under police surveillance for several months.
In Amsterdam, KLM spokeswoman Ellen van Ginkel confirmed the arrests.
“After the doors had closed and the plane was ready for departure, the German border police re-opened the doors and arrested two men,” Ms Van Ginkel said.
“Then, all passengers were let out of the plane and all luggage was also taken out and checked outside.”
The plane left 70 minutes behind schedule and landed safely in Amsterdam, the Associated Press reported.
The arrests came a day after police appealed to the public to help track down two missing Islamists, one of them a German convert, who were suspected of membership in a terrorist group called the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), often described as a successor to al-Qaeda.
Police said they were pursuing about 20 leads related to Eric Breininger, a 21-year-old German, and Houssain al-Malla, a 23-year-old Lebanese, were last seen in the zone along the Pakistan-Afghan border, the Associated Press reported.
Police suspect they might have secretly returned to Germany.
Police said Breininger, who is from Saarland state in the west of the country, had recorded an internet video in which he spoke of carrying out a suicide attack and supported jihad or holy war.
With AFP
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