Lebanon arrests another suspect as Germany foils massive terrorist campaign

Beirut – Lebanese authorities have
arrested a fourth suspect in connection with a plan to bomb two trains
in Germany, and have filed preliminary charges against five Lebanese
and a Syrian, judicial sources said on Saturday.

Four of the Lebanese are in Lebanese custody, while one Lebanese and the Syrian are in Germany, they added.

They face charges of attempted mass murder in passenger trains in Germany and attempted arson, they said.

The sources named the fourth suspect as Khalil al-Bubbu but gave no
details of his arrest. The others are Jihad Hamad, Khaled Kheireddin
al-Hajj, Ayman Hawa, Youssef al-Hajj and Fadi al-Saleh, the Syrian. The
last two are in Germany.

The latest legal step falls short of the formal indictment process,
which comes at a later stage, and the investigations could turn up
other suspects, the sources said.

Germany Uncovers Terror Plot

Germany said Wednesday it had foiled a “massive” terrorist attack
with the arrest of three Islamist extremists who were targeting
airports, bars and discotheques frequented by Americans. Six other
people are standing trial in Lebanon on similar charges.

The men, two Germans and a Turk aged 22, 28 and 29, had amassed vast
amounts of hydrogen peroxide, the same chemical used by suicide bombers
in the 2005 attacks on London’s transport system which killed 56
people, Harms said.

The chemicals had been stockpiled in a town in the Black Forest.

Arrested on Tuesday, the men allegedly belonged to an organization
with ties to Al-Qaida called Islamic Jihad Union, which German
authorities have suspected for several months of planning attacks.

One of the three suspects was arrested for spying on a U.S. military
base in December but was released soon afterwards, federal police Chief
Joerg Ziercke said. All three men had attended a training camp in
Pakistan in 2006.

German federal prosecutors in June charged a suspected mastermind
behind a failed plot to bomb two passenger trains using bombs packed in
suitcases last year which failed to explode because of faulty
detonators.

Six Lebanese men are currently standing trial in Lebanon over the plot, which targeted trains in western Germany.

Hard Labor in Lebanon

The Lebanese authorities arrested Ayman Hawa on Aug. 28 based on
information provided by Hamad and Khaled al-Hajj. Hawa is in his 20s
and from the northern town of Akkar.

Hamad, a 20-year-old student, turned himself in to authorities
earlier and confessed to planting a suitcase bomb. Investigations
suggested he might have links with al Qaeda.

Youssef al-Hajj, 21, was identified in Germany on security camera
footage that appeared to show him dragging a suitcase into a train in
Cologne in July.

Suitcases like those in the footage were found packed with propane
gas tanks and crude detonating devices on trains in Dortmund and
Koblenz.

A German newspaper said on Friday the two failed attempts had originally been planned for the football World Cup.

The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung cited security sources as saying
interrogation of the suspects had established that the would-be bombers
had abandoned the original plan as they had considered the implications
of such an attack.

Under Lebanese law, the charges could carry a penalty of life imprisonment with hard labour.

Sources: Reuters, Naharnet, AP

Via: Yalibnan