Al-Qaeda may still be active in Germany, prosecutor warns

Dec 14, 2011, 17:13 GMT

Karlsruhe, Germany - Al-Qaeda may still be active in Germany, despite police nabbing a four-member cell this year, the country's chief of anti-terrorism investigations warned Wednesday.

It would be 'utterly shy of the mark' to assume last week's arrest of the fourth man had cracked the case, said deputy prosecutor general Rainer Griesbaum.

Germany was not just a refuge for terrorists but also a target zone for planned attacks, prosecutors said in Karlsruhe, southern Germany.

Al-Qaeda's leadership had decided to mount attacks inside Germany by the start of 2010, said Griesbaum, quoting from a letter by the head of the four-man cell, who was arrested in April, to his al-Qaeda boss.

'O Sheikh, I am training some young fellows from Europe who are so far clean from a security point of view. Once the training is finished, I will, with the help of Allah, begin with the slaughter of the dogs of the sons of the yellow ones,' it said.

Griesbaum said 'yellow ones' was probably the writer's term for Europeans.

'In case something happens to me, I have already left brothers behind to continue my work after me,' the text continued.