Germany's Terror Fight Yields Results

Germany's fight against terror on its soil took a step forward Tuesday, as federal and local police arrested eleven members of a suspected Palestinian terrorism organization they said was planning attacks in the country.

The suspects were members of Al Tawhid (Holy Unity), a sunni-Palestinian group with its roots in Jordan, the German Federal Prosecutors Office said in a statement. The office charged the men with logistically supporting terrorists and planning attacks on targets within Germany.

The nationwide sweep was the largest operation against terrorism in Germany since Sept. 11. It comes at a time when terror's reach has come home to Germans. At least 11 of the 16 victims in an attack on a Jewish synagogue last week in Tunisia were German tourists.

German Interior Minister Otto Schily said this week the suspect behind the attack had contact with Muslims in Germany.

In Frankfurt, one of five members of a suspected al Qaeda terrorist cell on trial told the court Wednesday that he had helped plan a bomb attack on the Christmas market in Strasbourg, France two years ago.

Loose terror organization

Prosecutors said they didn't believe the eleven arrested on Tuesday were connected to either al-Qaeda or the attack on the Tunisian island of Djerba. Al Tawhid, chief prosecutor Kay Nehm told German television, is more of an extremist ideological movement than a proper organization.

The group has a relatively low profile in Germany. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution doesn't list it among the biggest of the 17 Islamic extremist organizations it says are currently operational in Germany.

Nehm (photo) said the group's spiritual leader is Abu Katadah, a Jordanian Palestinian convicted in absentia in 2000 by a Jordanian court of planning attacks on Israeli and American targets.

Targets unknown

The chief prosecutor's office would not say what sort of attacks were planned by the German group or where, only that there was serious evidence that an attack was in "the planning stages."

Police searched 19 homes and offices in five different German states on Tuesday, seizing computer discs and files and fake identification. The sting operation was the largest since Germany swore to better fight terrorist movements within its borders.

Two of the homes raided were used by a man authorities only identified as Yaser H., a 36-year-old resident of the town of Essen.

The prosecutor's office believes H. is the ringleader of Al Tawhid in Germany and was active in training its members for a holy war against the state.

The next challenge for federal prosecutors will be bringing forth enough evidence to keep the eleven suspects behind bars. For although police have made many arrests since Sept. 11, none of the suspects have remained in custody.