Al-Qaeda has posted a new video threatening Germany, highlighting an increased threat level ahead of national elections and prompting authorities to step up security, the interior ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said the video underlines the fact the elections next Sunday offer “a particular background for propaganda and operational actions by terrorist groups.”
It said in a brief statement that authorities believe there is an “increased threat situation” to which they are responding with “adjusted security measures in particular at airports and stations.”
The video, provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, showed a speaker warning that, if Germans do not push their political parties to withdraw the country’s soldiers from Afghanistan, “there will be a rude awakening after the elections.”
Germany’s ARD television and SITE, a US firm that monitors militant message traffic, identified the speaker, who delivered his message in fluent German in front of a red curtain, as Bekkay Harrach.
Harrach, who uses the pseudonym Abu Talha, has featured in previous videos over the past year threatening Germany.
“In a democracy, only the people can order their soldiers home,” the speaker said.
“But if the people decide for the continuation of the war, they have delivered their own verdict,” he said. “The parliamentary election is the people’s only opportunity to shape the policy of the country.”
“If the German people want to live in security again, they have the opportunity now,” he said, adding that “with the withdrawal of the last German soldiers, the last mujahid will also be withdrawn from Germany.”
The speaker said that Muslims in Germany should “stay away from anything not vital for the two weeks after the elections.”
Germany’s federal prosecutors and Federal Criminal Police Office said the video was still being evaluated. Frank Wallenta, a spokesman for prosecutors, said it was very likely that the speaker was in fact Harrach.
Authorities have said Harrach, a German of Moroccan background, is believed to have lived for many years in Bonn and now to be in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area.
Germany has more than 4,200 soldiers in Afghanistan. The deployment is unpopular, but has not been a significant issue in the election campaign.
<<< Only one of the five parties in parliament, the opposition Left Party, advocates an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan, and it has no realistic chance of joining the next government. German officials have over recent months described new videos featuring German-speakers as part of a “new quality” of threats. The Interior Ministry underlined that on Friday. Direct threats to Germany by al-Qaeda and other organizations since the beginning of this year “are reaching a new quality,” it said.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
RSS