GERMANY: German police have arrested two suspected al-Qaeda members they believe were trying to obtain uranium on the black market.
The men, a 29-year-old Iraqi and a 31-year-old Palestinian, were arrested in early morning raids in Bonn yesterday and the central German city of Mainz, where President George W. Bush is to meet Chancellor Schröder next month.
German police said the Iraqi-born man, identified only as Mohamed K, is suspected of trying to buy 48 grammes of uranium in Luxembourg and of recruiting men around Europe to act as al-Qaeda suicide bombers.
One of his successful recruits is the second man arrested yesterday, identified only as Yasser Abu S, a Libya-born Palestinian with an Egyptian pass.
German police said that, in the last months, Yasser Abu S had applied for life assurance policies worth more than €800,000 and that he was planning to go to Egypt and stage his own death in a car crash.
After the insurance money was paid out to al-Qaeda, Yasser Abu S declared himself ready to carry out a suicide bombing in Iraq.
The two men are suspected of being connected to Ramzi Binalshibh, the man believed to have masterminded the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11th, 2001, and now in US custody.
Mr Kay Nehm, the German state prosecutor, said yesterday that Mohamed K has trained at at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, including a year-long stay after the September 11th attacks.
Mr Nehm said the two men had been under surveillance since last October and stressed that their arrest had no connection with next month's presidential visit.