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Germany hunts for terror clues

Police have searched the German-Syrian's home
Police have searched the German-Syrian's home  


HAMBURG, Germany -- Police are questioning a German-Syrian family and searching their import-export business for possible connections to a terrorist cell involved in the September 11 attacks.

It is the second set of arrests by German police during the past week in relation to suspected terror links.

A Turkish man and his American fiancee were detained on Thursday near Heidelberg, southwest Germany, on suspicion of planning to bomb a U.S. military base.

In the latest incident a German-Syrian man, his wife, and two sons are being questioned on suspicion of having possible ties with Islamic extremists after authorities spotted "atypical business behaviour."

The family, who have not been named, is suspected of setting up a criminal organisation and using the textiles and porcelain import-export company as a cover to smuggle Islamic fundamentalists into the country.

Three of the suspected hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are thought to have been part of a terrorist cell in Hamburg, including Mohammed Atta, believed to have been at the controls of the first plane that crashed into the twin towers.

The man being questioned is the manager of the business at the centre of the inquiry.

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The Schleswig-Holstein Chamber of Commerce of Industry told CNN the name of the company is Tatex Trading.

The manager of the company is Abdul-Matin Tatari, the organisation added, but it has not yet been confirmed if he is the same person being questioned.

Raids were carried out by the Federal Criminal Office, the Federal Border Control and local police on property in the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. The firm, which was founded in August 1994, has five locations in northern Germany.

"There is the suspicion that the accused had contacts with two Islamic extremist circles, especially those that are being investigated with the terrorist attacks of September 11," said Kay Nehm, Germany's Federal prosecutor in a statement on Tuesday.

"The suspicion arose because of the atypical business behaviour of the accused," the statement added.

A soldier stands guard at the U.S. Campbell Barracks, believed to have been a recent terror target
A soldier stands guard at the U.S. Campbell Barracks, believed to have been a recent terror target  

The family faces charges of documentation falsification, money laundering and violating Germany's foreigner law.

Federal prosecutors declined to give further details, but said that the chief suspect was not the Syrian businessman, Mamoun Darkazanli, whose Hamburg-based firm has been labelled a front for terrorism by U.S. President George W. Bush, The Associated Press said.

Only one alleged member of the Hamburg cell has been arrested, 28-year-old Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan accused of helping the cell with logistics.

An indictment issued last month charges him with belonging to a terror group and about 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder, the agency added.

German authorities have issued international arrest warrants for three other suspected members of the cell who disappeared before the attacks.

Bombs and chemicals

Security is tight in the run-up to the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

The couple arrested last week, following a U.S. tip off, had a picture of Osama bin Laden in their apartment, and police found 287 pounds of chemicals and five pipe bombs, as well as a book about bomb-making during a search of the couple's third floor flat in the small town of Walldorf.

But German Interior Minister Otto Schily said no evidence existed that they had been recruited by al Qaeda.

The pair have been named as Oman Petmezci, 25, who worked at a chemical warehouse in Karlsruhe, and Astrid Eyzaguirre, 23, who had a job at a base store.

She would have had access to many facilities at Campbell Barracks which is home to the U.S.' Europe headquarters, the Army's 5th Corps headquarters and a NATO facility.

-- CNN Berlin Bureau Chief Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report



 
 
 
 


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