WoT Germany hunts bomb suspect in Chemnitz - Syrian Refugee

[Housecarl]

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37596829

Germany hunts bomb suspect in Chemnitz

1 hour ago
From the section Europe

Police in the eastern German city of Chemnitz have detained three people as they continue a search for a suspect believed to be planning a bomb attack.

Acting on a tip-off from the domestic intelligence service, police raided an apartment but failed to find the suspect, Jaber al-Bakr, 22, who was born in Syria. He remains on the run.

Several hundred grams of "highly volatile" explosives were found at the property, investigators said.

They were destroyed by a bomb squad.

About 100 people were evacuated from the apartment building as the explosives were moved for a controlled detonation.

Two people in contact with Mr al-Bakr were detained at Chemnitz railway station and another person was detained near the apartment in the Fritz-Heckert neighbourhood, Kathlen Zink of Saxony's criminal investigation office said.

She said they were suspected of being "linked with the suspect somehow" and had been taken in for questioning.

The "where, when, how and why" of the planned attack remained unknown according to Tom Bernhardt, a spokesman for the same office.
He said the explosives in the apartment were "relatively well hidden".

Saxony police have released pictures of Damascus-born Mr al-Bakr wearing a black, hooded sweatshirt with a colourful print.

They have not provided any information about how long he had been in Germany.

They have urged anyone with information about him to come forward.

Tweet from Saxony police reads, in English: Currently running a large scale operation in ~Chemnitz because of the suspicion of a planned bomb attackImage copyright@POLIZEISACHSEN
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity has waned since her decision to open the borders to refugees and migrants last year, admitting more than a million people, many of them Syrian.

In July, an axe attack on a train near Wuerzburg and a suicide bombing in Ansbach wounded 20 people and were claimed by so-called Islamic State (IS).

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/67F5/production/_91631662_chemnitz.jpg
Map of Germany showing Chemnitz

 

[Housecarl]

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http://www.voanews.com/a/three-suspects-detained-possible-german-bomb-plot/3542404.html

EUROPE

3 Suspects Detained, 1 at Large in Possible German Bomb Plot

October 08, 2016 5:32 PM
VOA News

German police searched Saturday for a Syrian man after receiving intelligence that he was planning a bombing attack.

Authorities detained three people known to Jaber Albakr, 22, after they found explosives in an apartment they raided while looking for him in the eastern city of Chemnitz, Saxony police spokesman Tom Bernhardt said. Two were taken into custody near the Chemnitz train station, and a third was apprehended in downtown Chemnitz.

Police were questioning the three, hoping they had information that might help them find the suspect.

"We have to assume that he is dangerous," Bernhardt said.

Authorities didn't say how long Albakr had been in Germany, and Bernhardt said it was unclear whether he was one among the close to 1 million asylum-seekers who entered the country in the last year.

Police called on the public to phone them with any information on Albakr, who was last seen in Chemnitz wearing a black hooded top with a bright pattern on the front.

"The search for the suspect is ongoing," Saxony state police tweeted. "At the moment, however, we do not know where he is and what he is carrying with him. Be careful."

A series of attacks hit Germany this summer. The Islamic State group claimed two in late July — one on a train near Wurzburg and another at a music festival in Ansbach — that wounded 20 people. Police shot and killed the assailants in both incidents.

Two other attacks, including a deadly mall shooting in Munich, were unrelated to Islamic extremism, police said.

 

[Housecarl]

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-bomb-idUSKCN12A0AF

World News | Mon Oct 10, 2016 | 12:57am EDT

German police capture man suspected of planning bomb attack

German police said on Monday they had captured a man suspected of planning a bomb attack who had slipped through their grasp during a raid two days ago.

"Tired but overjoyed: we captured the terror suspect last night in Leipzig," Saxony state police said on twitter.

Police had been looking for the suspect, 22-year-old Syrian refugee Jaber Albakr, since he evaded them during a raid on an apartment in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday.

Police found several hundred grammes of explosive in the apartment during Saturday's raid.

Albakr had been in Germany since last year and was officially recognized as a refugee, police said at the weekend.

"The overall picture of the investigation, in particular the amount of the explosive found, suggests that the person was planning to carry out an Islamist-motivated attack," a spokesman for the Federal Prosecutor's Office told broadcaster SWR on Sunday.

The suspicion that a refugee was planning a bomb attack will prove unwelcome news for Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose conservatives have lost support to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party over her open-door migration policy.

Merkel, who said last month she wished she could "turn back the time by many, many years" to better prepare for last year's influx of almost 1 million migrants, has yet to say whether she will seek a fourth term as chancellor in elections next year.

In July, the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for attacks on a train near Wuerzburg and at a music festival in Ansbach that wounded 20 people.

(Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Caroline Copley and Paul Tait)

 

[Dozdoats]

Two other attacks, including a deadly mall shooting in Munich, were unrelated to Islamic extremism, police said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDqSQGOtixE
The Pink Panther (1/12) Movie CLIP - Clouseau's Press Conference (2006) HD

 

[Housecarl]

Well this is an "interesting" turn of events.....

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37638631

Syrian terror suspect Jaber al-Bakr found dead in cell in Germany

5 hours ago
From the section Europe

A Syrian migrant suspected of planning a bomb attack on a Berlin airport has killed himself in his prison cell in Leipzig, Germany, officials say.

Saxony's state justice ministry said Jaber al-Bakr was found dead and that an investigation had been launched.

He had been turned in to police on Monday by three Syrian refugees after being on the run for two days.

German police had been watching him for months, but failed to arrest him when they raided his flat on Saturday.

Since his arrest, Jaber al-Bakr, 22, had been on hunger strike and was under round-the-clock surveillance, news website Der Spiegel reported.

Call to reward Syrian refugees who arrested fugitive

He was granted asylum after coming to Germany last year.

German intelligence received reports last week that he might be planning an attack, and they alerted police in the eastern state of Saxony.

Authorities said they discovered last Thursday that the suspect had used the internet to get bomb-making instructions and had obtained explosives.

The BBC's Damien McGuinness in Berlin says al-Bakr's death will now make it even more difficult for police to find concrete information about his plans and about any possible accomplices.

When police raided the flat in the eastern city of Chemnitz, they found 1.5kg of TATP, a home-made explosive used in the deadly jihadist attacks in Paris last year and in Brussels last March. The explosives were "extremely dangerous", police said.

But al-Bakr managed to slip the net, and made his way to the city of Leipzig where he asked the Syrians for help.

The three told police they had heard about the manhunt and tied him up while one of them knelt on him.

They alerted police who finally managed to arrest him.

Since then there have been calls for authorities to honour the three. Bild newspaper described them as "the Syrian heroes from Leipzig".

The authorities believe al-Bakr had links to the group that calls itself Islamic State.

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm.....

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http://www.france24.com/en/20161013-germany-terror-suspect-prison-suicide-fiasco

Germans outraged over terror suspect’s prison suicide ‘fiasco’

Latest update : 2016-10-13

A Syrian bomb plot suspect found hanged in his cell had not been deemed an "acute" suicide risk, German officials said Thursday as outrage grew over the judicial "fiasco".

The death in custody follows an initially botched attempt to arrest Jaber al-Bakr last Saturday, which sparked a nationwide manhunt that ended only when three other Syrians caught him and handed him over to police on Monday.

Two days after Bakr's dramatic capture, the 22-year-old was found hanged with his T-shirt in his jail cell in the eastern city of Leipzig.

The death sparked cries of outrage and concern that Germany may never learn the plans for an attack on a Berlin airport Bakr had allegedly wanted to carry out in the name of the Islamic State group.

Prison chief Rolf Jacob told journalists that a "very experienced psychologist" had interviewed Bakr and assessed that "there was no acute suicide risk".

Although the detainee had begun a hunger strike following his imprisonment, he had been "quiet and calm, there was no indication of emotional issues".

The psychologist, who had no previous experience with terror suspects, had therefore suggested that the regular checks, which were initially set at 15 minute intervals, be reduced to half hourly from Tuesday, said Jacob.

The suspect was nonetheless held in isolation as he was deemed to pose a potential threat to other inmates.

"I am incredibly shocked and in disbelief that this could have happened," Bakr's lawyer Alexander Huebner told Bild daily.

Huebner said his client had already "smashed lamps and manipulated power points", but "he was not under watch day and night, even though the suicide risk was known".

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the suicide had "obviously hampered investigations" into the alleged terror plot and posed a "setback in the search for other accomplices, backers, networks and such".

'Loss of control'

The incident showed a "complete loss of control by authorities" in Saxony, the conservative wing of the Social Democratic Party said in a statement.

Greens party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz told Deutschlandfunk radio that a close look was needed to identify who was responsible for what he branded a "fiasco".

Debate has been raging over how jihadists should be monitored in custody.

In neighbouring France, Salah Abdeslam, the suspect believed to be the last surviving member of the terror squad that killed 130 people in Paris in November, is held in isolation and continuously monitored by special guards.

Authorities are anxious to prevent any attempts at a jail break, but also suicide, as such suspects are deemed to be sitting on a gold mine of information on jihadists' modus operandi.

Deploring the death in custody, the Christian Democratic Union's Jan-Marco Luczak said: "The suspect could have given lots of valuable information about the activities or structure of the Islamic State group.

"In such a sensitive situation, the monitoring should have been air-tight," he said.

Investigations are now likely to focus on Bakr's flatmate, named as Khalil. A, who is accused of having helped him to procure bomb making material on the internet "in full knowledge of his plans of attack".

The 33-year-old, who was formally arrested Sunday, has been put under continuous watch in the Leipzig prison, said Willi Schmid, a senior official at the Saxony justice ministry.

Botched arrest bid

Germany's domestic security service had alerted police last Friday that Bakr might be plotting a bomb attack. Investigators have since said he was thought to have links with the Islamic State group.

Early last Saturday, police closed in on him in the eastern city of Chemnitz, but he managed to slip away after they fired a warning shot.

Police officers monitoring Bakr were reportedly so conspicuous that his neighbour noticed them too, Bild daily reported, adding that a police vehicle was openly parked in front of the apartment block.

Police were later widely mocked after an investigator explained that officers could not chase Bakr because they were wearing 35 kilos worth of protective gear.

Police discovered 1.5 kilos (over three pounds) of TATP, the homemade explosive that was used by IS jihadists in the Paris and Brussels attacks, in Bakr's flat.

They said that he was preparing a "bomb, possibly in the form of a suicide vest".

Bakr was finally turned in late Sunday by three Syrian refugees who had overpowered and tied him up after realising that he was sought by police.

Germany has been on edge since two IS-claimed attacks in July -- an axe rampage on a train in Wuerzburg that injured five, and a suicide bombing in Ansbach in which 15 people were hurt.

The bloodshed has fuelled concerns over Germany's record influx of nearly 900,000 refugees and migrants in 2015.

(AFP)

 

[Housecarl]

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-bomb-suspect-idUSKBN12F07R

WORLD NEWS | Sat Oct 15, 2016 | 6:00pm EDT

Syrian bombing suspect in Germany spoke to IS contact about attack plans: newspaper

By Michelle Martin | BERLIN
A Syrian refugee arrested on suspicion of planning a major attack in Berlin spoke to a member of Islamic State in Syria by telephone about a possible target a day before German police discovered explosives in his apartment, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Jaber Albakr was detained on Monday, two days after police discovered about 1.5 kg of explosives in his apartment. He was found dead in prison on Wednesday. Authorities said he had committed suicide.

Germany's Welt am Sonntag (WamS) cited investigation sources as saying U.S. intelligence had provided a tip-off about Albakr after tapping several phone calls between him and an Islamic State member in Syria. During the calls, 22-year-old Albakr spoke about his attack plans, the newspaper said.

In a call on Oct. 7, Albakr told his contact that 2 kg of explosives were ready and he named a possible target, saying a "big airport in Berlin" was "better than trains", WamS reported.

In July, the militant group claimed responsibility for two attacks in the German state of Bavaria - one on a train near Wuerzburg and the other at a music festival in Ansbach that wounded 20 people.

WamS said federal prosecutors investigating the case assumed that Albakr wanted to make a vest packed with explosives for an attack.

The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV) has said Albakr was building a bomb and probably planned to attack one of the airports in Berlin.

Investigators said on Monday they believed Albakr was close to staging an attack comparable to those that killed 130 people in Paris last November and 32 in Belgium in March. They suspect he was inspired by the Islamic State militant group.

Albakr arrived in Germany in February 2015 during a migrant influx into the country and was granted temporary asylum four months later.

The man who rented the flat in the eastern city of Chemnitz in which Albakr last lived - a 33-year-old Syrian who WamS named as Khalil A. - is in custody and is being investigated on suspicion of helping Albakr, the newspaper said.

Separately, German broadcaster ARD said Tegel airport in Berlin was possibly Albakr's attack target. Without naming its sources, ARD said Albakr went to Berlin one weekend in the second half of September to spy out Tegel.

Bus tickets, among other things, proved that, the broadcaster said.

The Berliner Morgenpost newspaper and the regional broadcaster rbb cited federal security sources as saying Albakr met a contact in Berlin while he was in the capital.

The newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (F.A.S.) said train tickets that investigators found in Albakr's possessions were key to uncovering the Berlin trip.

The federal prosecutor's office declined to comment on media reports when contacted by Reuters.

F.A.S. cited a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office as saying there were not yet "enough links to IS that could be used in court".

German security sources told Reuters that Albakr had traveled to Turkey after receiving asylum in Germany and spent several months there this summer.

F.A.S. said Albakr landed in the eastern German city of Leipzig at the end of August on his return from Turkey. The newspaper cited investigators as saying Albakr had already planned an attack at that point.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Andrew Bolton and Mary Milliken)