Al-Qaida Declares Jihad On Germany

Sep 18, 2009 15 Comments ›› Erik Wong

BERLIN – Al-Qaida has posted a new video threatening Germany, highlighting an increased threat level ahead of national elections and prompting authorities to step up security, the Interior Ministry said Friday.

The ministry gave no details of the al-Qaida posting, but said in a brief statement it underlines the fact that the Sept. 27 elections offer “a particular background for propaganda and operational actions by terrorist groups.”

It said authorities believe there is an “increased threat situation” to which they are responding with “adjusted security measures in particular at airports and stations.”

ARD television reported that the video features a German-speaker who has featured in previous videos over the past year, issuing a threat connected to Germany’s troop presence in Afghanistan.

“If the people decides for a continuation of the war, it has delivered its own verdict,” the channel quoted Bekkay Harrach, who uses the pseudonym Abu Talha, as saying in the video. “The parliamentary election is the people’s only opportunity to shape the policy of the country.”

He adds that “with the withdrawal of the last German soldiers, the last mujahedeen also will be withdrawn from Germany.”

IntelCenter, another company that monitors terrorist propaganda, said Harrach warned that, if Germans do not vote for a change of government, there will be a “bad awakening” after the election.

He asked his Muslim “brethren” to “stay away from anything not vital for two weeks after the election,” the group said.

Germany has more than 4,200 soldiers in Afghanistan. The deployment is unpopular, but has not been a significant issue in the election campaign.

Only one of the five parties in parliament, the opposition Left Party, advocates an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan, and it has no realistic chance of joining the next government.

Authorities have said Harrach, a German of Moroccan background, is believed to have lived for many years in Bonn and now to be in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area.

German officials have over recent months described new videos featuring German-speakers as part of a “new quality” of threats. The Interior Ministry underlined that on Friday.

Direct threats to Germany by al-Qaida and other organizations since the beginning of this year “are reaching a new quality,” it said.

(AP)