French anti-terrorism authorities have arrested two men -- a Moroccan and a German believed to be a top al-Qaeda recruiter -- as part of investigations of the Sept. 11 attacks and a deadly bombing at a Tunisian synagogue, judicial officials said on Thursday.
The officials said they believe the suspects -- Moroccan national Karim Mehdi and Christian Ganczarski of Germany -- each had links to a cell of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network operating in Hamburg, Germany that helped carry out the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mehdi, 34, was taken into custody on Sunday at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, the officials said on condition of anonymity. He had arrived from Germany, and had planned to leave for the island of La Reunion off southeastern Africa.
Under questioning, Mehdi said he was headed to the island to look for tourist sites to attack, along the lines of the October bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed more than 200 people -- mostly foreign tourists, the officials said.
The arrest was the first in France since French anti-terrorism judges opened an investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington just a few weeks after they took place.
Mehdi is also believed to have had direct contacts with Ziad Jarrah, the suspected pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, officials said.
Mehdi appeared before a judge Thursday and was placed under investigation -- one step short of being officially charged -- for alleged connection with a terrorist enterprise, officials said. He was being held in custody.
Three of the suicide hijackers who seized control of commercial airliners for the Sept. 11 attacks -- including the alleged ringleader, Mohammed Atta -- allegedly had ties to the Hamburg cell.
Ganczarski, 36, was apprehended on Monday, also at the Paris airport. He was to appear before an anti-terrorism judge in the coming days, the officials said.
Ganczarski allegedly had links to an April 2002 suicide bombing of a historic synagogue on Tunisia's tourist island of Djerba which killed 21 people, including 14 German tourists, the officials said.
German authorities allowed Ganczarski -- a suspected accomplice in the Djerba attack previously identified as Christian G. -- to leave the country in December because there was not sufficient evidence to arrest him, German officials said at the time.
French authorities said they believe he was a top recruiter for al-Qaeda in Germany.
Ganczarski was under investigation for suspected membership in a terrorist group after he was traced as the recipient of an intercepted phone call from Nizar Naouar, the leading suspect in the Djerba bombing who is believed to have died in the suicide mission.
Ganczarski was expected to be put under investigation -- one step short of being officially charged -- yesterday or today in connection with the French investigation into the Djerba attack, officials said.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) purge of his most senior general is driven by his effort to both secure “total control” of his military and root out corruption, US Ambassador to China David Perdue said told Bloomberg Television yesterday. The probe into Zhang Youxia (張又俠), Xi’s second-in-command, announced over the weekend, is a “major development,” Perdue said, citing the family connections the vice chair of China’s apex military commission has with Xi. Chinese authorities said Zhang was being investigated for suspected serious discipline and law violations, without disclosing further details. “I take him at his word that there’s a corruption effort under
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
RSS