Al-Zawahri succeeds bin Laden as al-Qaida leader (AP)

CAIRO – Osama bin Laden's longtime second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, has taken control of al-Qaida, the group declared Thursday, marking the ascendancy of a man driven by hatred of the United States who helped plan the 9/11 attacks.

Al-Zawahri is considered the organizational brain of the terror group, highly skilled at planning and logistics. Analysts said he could set his sights on a spectacular attack and on building up al-Qaida's already robust presence in Yemen to establish his leadership credentials.

His fanaticism and the depth of his hatred for the United States and Israel are likely to define al-Qaida's actions under al-Zawahri's tutelage. In a 2001 treatise that offered a glimpse of his violent thoughts, al-Zawahri set down al-Qaida's strategy: to inflict "as many casualties as possible" on the Americans.

"Pursuing the Americans and Jews is not an impossible task," he wrote. "Killing them is not impossible, whether by a bullet, a knife stab, a bomb or a strike with an iron bar."

Al-Zawahri's hatred of America was also deeply personal: His wife and at least two of their six children were killed in a U.S. airstrike following the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after the 9-11 attacks.

The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri had been expected to inherit al-Qaida's leadership, although the delay in announcing his succession led some counterterrorism analysts to speculate about a power struggle following the May 2 killing of bin Laden in a U.S. raid in Pakistan.

"The general command of al-Qaida, after completing consultations, declares Abu Mohammed, Ayman al-Zawahri, God help him, the one leading the group," said a statement attributed to al-Qaida and posted on militant websites, including several known to be affiliated with the group.

It gave no details about the selection process but said the choice of al-Zawahri was the best tribute to the memory of the group's "martyrs."

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. will pursue the new al-Qaida leader just as it did bin Laden.

"As we did both seek to capture and succeed in killing bin Laden, we certainly will do the same thing with Zawahri," he said at a news conference in Washington.

Al-Zawahri, who turns 60 on Sunday and has a $25 million bounty on his head, takes control of al-Qaida at a time when it is struggling to stay relevant in the face of popular uprisings across the Arab world that are demanding Western-style democracy instead of the pan-Islamic nation sought by Islamists.

Still, the lawlessness gripping Yemen, a poor Arabian Peninsula nation, offers al-Qaida a rare opportunity to gain a strategic foothold in the Arab world, bringing it a step closer to the ability to export its extremist brand of Islam to the region.

"He will send his best fighters and organizers there," said Abdel-Rehim Ali, an Egyptian expert on terrorism and extremist Islamic groups. "Yemen is the closest target and a great start for al-Zawahri to realize his dream of an Islamic emirate."

Al-Qaida militants and their allies in Yemen already have taken advantage of the turmoil there to seize control of towns in the south and strike deals with local garrisons to train with weaponry and live openly.

Al-Zawahri, a trained surgeon who hails from an upper-middle-class Cairo family, lacks the populist appeal of his late boss, throwing into doubt whether he would be able to lure young Muslims, particularly in the West, to join al-Qaida's cause.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said al-Zawahri lacks the "peculiar charisma" of bin Laden and said there is suspicion about him among militants because he is Egyptian.

Still, what he lacks in personal magnetism al-Zawahri makes up for with rock solid ideological conviction and organizational and logistical skills, qualities that may have spared al-Qaida a swift demise following its expulsion from Afghanistan in 2001.

It's not clear how much consensus there was over al-Zawahri's succession, but two U.S. officials said he was not a popular choice. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Al-Zawahri and his backers seemed to understand that, so instead of declaring himself bin Laden's successor in his first public video eulogizing the slain al-Qaida leader, al-Zawahri waited for a call by fellow jihadis, said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and al-Qaida expert at the Brookings Institution. The idea was to create the impression of popular support, he said.

U.S. officials said they'll be watching for signs that al-Zawahri is a leader in name only, with affiliates branching out even more on their own.

They noted that communications captured in the attack on bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, showed al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, argued against bin Laden's idea of spectacular attacks in the U.S. and in favor of smaller operations.

But al-Zawahri's lack of universal acceptance within the organization, analysts said, could give him added incentive to stage a spectacular attack against a prestige target, most likely American, to boost his leadership credentials.

"He must already be planning a big attack to convince the skeptics that he is qualified as a leader," said Khalil al-Anani, an expert on Islamic groups from Durham University in Britain. "He will be under pressure to do that, and quickly."

Al-Zawahri pledged earlier this month to avenge the slaying of bin Laden and to continue the terror network's campaign against the U.S. and other Western interests.

"He was a given leader from the outset. But he doesn't have the same iconic status or personality as bin Laden," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terror analyst at the Royal Swedish Defense College. "He will focus on attacking the West in a big way. To avenge (bin Laden's death), but also to make himself ... even more effective and relevant."

The son of an Egyptian family of doctors and scholars, al-Zawahri's father was a pharmacology professor at Cairo University's medical school and his grandfather was the grand imam of al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's supreme seat of learning.

He has a long history of radicalism, beginning at age 15 when he founded an underground cell of high school students to oppose the Egyptian government. He later merged his cell with other militants to form Egypt's Islamic Jihad.

Al-Zawahri was arrested in connection with the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and served three years in prison. Many Egyptians remember him as the young man who stuck his head against the bars of the defendants' cage in a Cairo courtroom to answer Western reporters' questions in fluent English.

Upon his release, he headed to Afghanistan in 1984 to fight the Soviets, where he linked up with bin Laden. He later followed the al-Qaida leader to Sudan and then back to Afghanistan, where they found a safe haven under the radical Taliban regime.

Soon after came the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa, followed by the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen, an attack al-Zawahri is believed to have helped mastermind.

Al-Zawahri has worked in the years since to rebuild al-Qaida's leadership on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Al-Qaida has inspired or had a direct hand in attacks in North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 transit bombings in London.

The CIA came close to capturing him in 2003 and killing him in 2004 — both times in Pakistan. In December 2009, they thought they were again close, only to be tricked by a double agent who blew himself up, killing seven CIA employees and wounding six more in Khost, Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban welcomed the appointment of al-Zawahri and vowed to fight alongside the terror group against the U.S. and "other infidel forces" around the world.

"We share the same path with al-Qaida. We are allies," Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Al-Zawahri has been in hiding for nearly 10 years and is widely believed to be near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He has appeared in dozens of videos and audiotapes in recent years, increasingly becoming the face of al-Qaida as bin Laden kept a lower profile.

___

AP writers Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Karl Ritter in Stockholm and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.

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Al-Zawahri succeeds bin Laden as al-Qaida leader (AP)

CAIRO – Osama bin Laden's longtime second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, has taken control of al-Qaida, the group declared Thursday, marking the ascendancy of a man driven by hatred of the United States who helped plan the 9/11 attacks.

Al-Zawahri is considered the organizational brain of the terror group, highly skilled at planning and logistics. Analysts said he could set his sights on a spectacular attack and on building up al-Qaida's already robust presence in Yemen to establish his leadership credentials.

His fanaticism and the depth of his hatred for the United States and Israel are likely to define al-Qaida's actions under al-Zawahri's tutelage. In a 2001 treatise that offered a glimpse of his violent thoughts, al-Zawahri set down al-Qaida's strategy: to inflict "as many casualties as possible" on the Americans.

"Pursuing the Americans and Jews is not an impossible task," he wrote. "Killing them is not impossible, whether by a bullet, a knife stab, a bomb or a strike with an iron bar."

Al-Zawahri's hatred of America was also deeply personal: His wife and at least two of their six children were killed in a U.S. airstrike following the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after the 9-11 attacks.

The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri had been expected to inherit al-Qaida's leadership, although the delay in announcing his succession led some counterterrorism analysts to speculate about a power struggle following the May 2 killing of bin Laden in a U.S. raid in Pakistan.

"The general command of al-Qaida, after completing consultations, declares Abu Mohammed, Ayman al-Zawahri, God help him, the one leading the group," said a statement attributed to al-Qaida and posted on militant websites, including several known to be affiliated with the group.

It gave no details about the selection process but said the choice of al-Zawahri was the best tribute to the memory of the group's "martyrs."

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. will pursue the new al-Qaida leader just as it did bin Laden.

"As we did both seek to capture and succeed in killing bin Laden, we certainly will do the same thing with Zawahri," he said at a news conference in Washington.

Al-Zawahri, who turns 60 on Sunday and has a $25 million bounty on his head, takes control of al-Qaida at a time when it is struggling to stay relevant in the face of popular uprisings across the Arab world that are demanding Western-style democracy instead of the pan-Islamic nation sought by Islamists.

Still, the lawlessness gripping Yemen, a poor Arabian Peninsula nation, offers al-Qaida a rare opportunity to gain a strategic foothold in the Arab world, bringing it a step closer to the ability to export its extremist brand of Islam to the region.

"He will send his best fighters and organizers there," said Abdel-Rehim Ali, an Egyptian expert on terrorism and extremist Islamic groups. "Yemen is the closest target and a great start for al-Zawahri to realize his dream of an Islamic emirate."

Al-Qaida militants and their allies in Yemen already have taken advantage of the turmoil there to seize control of towns in the south and strike deals with local garrisons to train with weaponry and live openly.

Al-Zawahri, a trained surgeon who hails from an upper-middle-class Cairo family, lacks the populist appeal of his late boss, throwing into doubt whether he would be able to lure young Muslims, particularly in the West, to join al-Qaida's cause.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said al-Zawahri lacks the "peculiar charisma" of bin Laden and said there is suspicion about him among militants because he is Egyptian.

Still, what he lacks in personal magnetism al-Zawahri makes up for with rock solid ideological conviction and organizational and logistical skills, qualities that may have spared al-Qaida a swift demise following its expulsion from Afghanistan in 2001.

It's not clear how much consensus there was over al-Zawahri's succession, but two U.S. officials said he was not a popular choice. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Al-Zawahri and his backers seemed to understand that, so instead of declaring himself bin Laden's successor in his first public video eulogizing the slain al-Qaida leader, al-Zawahri waited for a call by fellow jihadis, said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and al-Qaida expert at the Brookings Institution. The idea was to create the impression of popular support, he said.

U.S. officials said they'll be watching for signs that al-Zawahri is a leader in name only, with affiliates branching out even more on their own.

They noted that communications captured in the attack on bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, showed al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, argued against bin Laden's idea of spectacular attacks in the U.S. and in favor of smaller operations.

But al-Zawahri's lack of universal acceptance within the organization, analysts said, could give him added incentive to stage a spectacular attack against a prestige target, most likely American, to boost his leadership credentials.

"He must already be planning a big attack to convince the skeptics that he is qualified as a leader," said Khalil al-Anani, an expert on Islamic groups from Durham University in Britain. "He will be under pressure to do that, and quickly."

Al-Zawahri pledged earlier this month to avenge the slaying of bin Laden and to continue the terror network's campaign against the U.S. and other Western interests.

"He was a given leader from the outset. But he doesn't have the same iconic status or personality as bin Laden," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terror analyst at the Royal Swedish Defense College. "He will focus on attacking the West in a big way. To avenge (bin Laden's death), but also to make himself ... even more effective and relevant."

The son of an Egyptian family of doctors and scholars, al-Zawahri's father was a pharmacology professor at Cairo University's medical school and his grandfather was the grand imam of al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's supreme seat of learning.

He has a long history of radicalism, beginning at age 15 when he founded an underground cell of high school students to oppose the Egyptian government. He later merged his cell with other militants to form Egypt's Islamic Jihad.

Al-Zawahri was arrested in connection with the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and served three years in prison. Many Egyptians remember him as the young man who stuck his head against the bars of the defendants' cage in a Cairo courtroom to answer Western reporters' questions in fluent English.

Upon his release, he headed to Afghanistan in 1984 to fight the Soviets, where he linked up with bin Laden. He later followed the al-Qaida leader to Sudan and then back to Afghanistan, where they found a safe haven under the radical Taliban regime.

Soon after came the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa, followed by the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen, an attack al-Zawahri is believed to have helped mastermind.

Al-Zawahri has worked in the years since to rebuild al-Qaida's leadership on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Al-Qaida has inspired or had a direct hand in attacks in North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 transit bombings in London.

The CIA came close to capturing him in 2003 and killing him in 2004 — both times in Pakistan. In December 2009, they thought they were again close, only to be tricked by a double agent who blew himself up, killing seven CIA employees and wounding six more in Khost, Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban welcomed the appointment of al-Zawahri and vowed to fight alongside the terror group against the U.S. and "other infidel forces" around the world.

"We share the same path with al-Qaida. We are allies," Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Al-Zawahri has been in hiding for nearly 10 years and is widely believed to be near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He has appeared in dozens of videos and audiotapes in recent years, increasingly becoming the face of al-Qaida as bin Laden kept a lower profile.

___

AP writers Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Karl Ritter in Stockholm and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.

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Turkey: 10 suspected al-Qaida affiliates detained (AP)

ANKARA, Turkey – Police on Tuesday arrested 10 people suspected of links to an al-Qaida terrorist network in southern Turkey, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Police captured nine of the suspects in simultaneous raids in the southern city of Adana and another one in the city of Hatay, near the Syrian border, it said. Police would not say whether the suspects were preparing to stage an attack but no weapons or explosives were seized in the raids.

Adana is home to the Incirlik Air Base, which is used by the United States for the transfer of non-combat supplies to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Authorities have said Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida planned to attack Incirlik in the past but were deterred by high security.

Homegrown Islamic militants tied to the al-Qaida attacked the British consulate, a British bank and two synagogues in Istanbul, killing 58 people in 2003. In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.

Turkish authorities have said dozens of Islamic militants have received training in Afghanistan.

However, Al-Qaida's austere and violent interpretation of Islam receives little public backing in Turkey.

Several other radical Islamic groups are also active in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim but officially secular country.

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Al-Qaida militant said killed by US in Pakistan (AP)

By CHRIS BRUMMITT and ISHTIAQ MEHSUD, Associated Press Chris Brummitt And Ishtiaq Mehsud, Associated Press – 3 mins ago

ISLAMABAD – An al-Qaida leader sought in the 2008 Mumbai siege and rumored to be a longshot choice to succeed Osama bin Laden was believed killed in a U.S. drone attack as he met with other militants in an apple orchard in Pakistan, an intelligence official said Saturday. If confirmed, it would be another blow against the terror organization a month after the slaying of its leader.

The purported death of Ilyas Kashmiri — who also was accused of killing many Pakistanis — could help soothe US-Pakistan ties that nearly unraveled after the May 2 bin Laden raid. While it was unclear how Kashmiri was tracked, his name was on a list of militants that both countries recently agreed to jointly target as part of measures to restore trust, officials have said.

It also would be a major victory for U.S. intelligence, particularly the controversial CIA-run drone program, which began in 2005 but has been increasingly criticized by the Pakistanis amid rising anti-American sentiment in the country.

A senior American official in Kabul said Saturday that the U.S. has no confirmation that Kashmiri is dead. Other Pakistani officials also said they couldn't confirm it.

Described by American officials as al-Qaida's military operations chief in Pakistan, the 47-year-old Pakistani was one of five most-wanted militant leaders in the country, accused of a string of bloody attacks in Pakistan and India as well as aiding plots in the West. He also has been named a defendant in an American court over a planned attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.

Washington had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his location.

One Pakistani intelligence officer said Kashmiri was believed killed along with eight other militants in a drone strike Friday close to Wana town in South Waziristan, not far from the Afghan border. A senior Pakistani security official said there "were strong indications" of his death.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy and the sensitivity of the subject.

Verifying who has been killed in the drone strikes is difficult, with DNA samples or photographic evidence typically needed. Initial reports have turned out to be wrong in the past, including one in September 2009 that said Kashmiri had been killed. Sometimes they are never formally denied or confirmed in Pakistan or in the United States.

A fax purportedly sent by the militant group he was heading — Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami's feared "313 Brigade" — confirmed Kashmiri was "martyred" in Friday's 11:15 p.m. strike. It was sent to journalists in Peshawar, and its authenticity could not be independently confirmed. The group, which has not previously communicated with the media, promised revenge against America in the handwritten statement on a white page bearing its name of the group.

Soon after the attack, local intelligence officials said the slain men were in a large compound. The intelligence officer said Saturday that the militants were meeting in an apple orchard near the house when the missiles hit.

Kashmiri fought with jihadi fighters in Afghanistan and in Indian-held Kashmir in the 1990s, allegedly with the support of the Pakistani state, and was said to have lost a finger and been blinded in one eye during those conflicts. He reportedly once served in the Pakistani army, but he denied that in an interview in 2009. Like other top al-Qaida and allied militants, he was believed to be living in the tribal regions close to the Afghan border in recent years.

Indian officials have alleged Kashmiri was involved in the 2008 siege of a hotel and other targets in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed more than 160 people.

In an ongoing terror trial in Chicago, an admitted American-Pakistani militant has testified that Kashmiri helped plan the Mumbai siege and wanted to attack U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Kashmiri had been angry over U.S. drone attacks inside Pakistan and wanted to target the company, according to David Coleman Headley.

Headley, who pleaded guilty to laying the groundwork for the Mumbai attacks, also testified during the trial of his longtime friend Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana that he worked with Kashmiri to plot the attack against the Danish newspaper. Headley said he traveled to Copenhagen to conduct surveillance. The attack was never carried out and Kashmiri was charged in absentia along with several others in the case.

Kashmiri has most recently been linked to last month's 18-hour assault on a naval base in Karachi. He is also accused of masterminding several raids on Pakistan police and intelligence buildings in 2009, as well as a failed assassination attempt against then-President Pervez Musharraf in 2003.

Pakistani leaders did not immediately comment on Friday's attack, but Kashmiri's alleged involvement in attacks on Pakistanis was likely to mute the public reaction.

The U.S Department of State says he organized a 2006 suicide bombing against the U.S. consulate in Karachi that killed an American diplomat and three other people. In early 2009, it said Kashmiri operated a militant training center in Miram Shah in North Waziristan.

Considered to be one of al-Qaida's most accomplished terrorists, he had been mentioned by security analysts as a contender for replacing bin Laden as head of the group, though many thought the fact that he was not an Arab dampened his chances.

Ties between Washington and America have deteriorated since the bin Laden raid. Pakistanis viewed the unilateral operation as a violation of sovereignty, while bin Laden's location in an army town close to the capital added to long-standing suspicion in Washington that elements of Pakistan's security forces were protecting him.

With fresh leverage, American officials made it clear they expected Pakistan to boost efforts to locate other al-Qaida leaders in the country. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Islamabad two weeks ago she expected Pakistan to "take decisive steps" in the days ahead.

The U.S. drone strikes have been controversial since they picked up pace in 2008, with about 30 reported so far this year.

Pakistani army officers and politicians publicly protest them, too weak to admit to working with the ever unpopular America in targeting fellow Pakistanis, but the country's intelligence agencies have been known to provide targeting information.

Opposition to the strikes grew this year after a CIA contractor shot and killed two Pakistanis in the street, triggering ever more intense anti-American anger. After the bin Laden raid, the parliament issued a declaration calling for the attacks to end.

The United States does not acknowledge the CIA-run program, though its officials have confirmed the death of high-value targets before, including the head of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, in 2009 — a strike welcomed by many Pakistan officials because he too was a sworn enemy of the country.

___

Mehsud reported from Dera Ismail Khan. Associated Press reporters Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.

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Germans arrest 3 al-Qaida suspects

BERLIN (AP) — German police on Friday arrested three suspected members of the al-Qaida terrorist organization who officials say posed a "concrete and imminent danger" to the nation.

var data = blocks.columnist;if (data != undefined){document.getElementById('columnistmug').innerHTML=data;} By Mark Keppler, AP

Journalists stand in front of the building where two of three suspected members of al-Qaida were arrested in Dusseldorf, Germany,

By Mark Keppler, AP

Journalists stand in front of the building where two of three suspected members of al-Qaida were arrested in Dusseldorf, Germany,

Authorities did not say whether the three had planned specific targets and offered few details, but security officials said that all three suspects were of Moroccan origin. They also said that two were arrested were in the western German city of Duesseldorf and one in nearby Bochum. The arrests were based on suspicion they were planning a terror attack, they said.

The arrests "succeeded in averting a concrete and imminent danger, presented by international terrorism," German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement. They showed "Germany remains a target of international terrorists."

Germany has escaped any large-scale attack by an Islamic terror organization, such as the Madrid train bombings of 2004 and the London transit attacks of 2005. But Germany's presence as part of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan has sparked anger and at least two major plots have been thwarted or failed in Germany before they could be carried out.

The suspects had been under surveillance since November when Germany increased security across the country in response to heightened terror threat warnings in Europe, but authorities only had enough evidence to launch an official criminal investigation starting April 15, German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement.

Federal prosecutors said earlier they had ordered Germany's federal police to arrest the trio, but gave no further information about the timing or location of the arrests. Officials were planning a news conference for Saturday.

A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing investigation told The Associated Press in Washington D.C. that a SWAT team picked up three people in a raid on suspicion they were planning an attack with explosives.

"Our concerns about threats in Europe had a number of different threads and strands, some of which have been disrupted by good intelligence and law enforcement work by the relevant services," another U.S. official told the AP on condition of anonymity.

"There have been five disrupted plots in Europe during the past four years ? including a credible plot in Germany in 2007 ? all of which demonstrate Pakistan-based al-Qaida's steadfast intent to attack the US and our allies."

Duesseldorf, a city of 600,000 has one of the largest Moroccan immigrant communities in Germany. It is to host the Eurovision Song Contest on May 14, which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of spectators.

The German prosecutors said the three alleged terrorists would be brought before a judge Saturday who will decide whether they are to remain in detention pending a trial.

Germany raised its security posture in November after receiving information from its own and foreign intelligence services that led authorities to believe a sleeper cell of some 20 to 25 people may have been planning an attack inside the country or in another European nation.

Around the same time Germany also received information from U.S. sources that an attack similar to that in Mumbai in Nov. 2008 that killed 166 may be planned for Germany, the official said. Later, Germany received information on possible attacks at Christmas or New Year's.

In February, the German government lowered the terror level and reduced the number of police officers patrolling railway stations and other public places, but made clear at the time that a threat to the country still remains.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Germans arrest 3 al-Qaida suspects

BERLIN (AP) — German police on Friday arrested three suspected members of the al-Qaida terrorist organization who officials say posed a "concrete and imminent danger" to the nation.

Journalists stand in front of the building where two of three suspected members of al-Qaida were arrested in Dusseldorf, Germany,

By Mark Keppler, AP

Journalists stand in front of the building where two of three suspected members of al-Qaida were arrested in Dusseldorf, Germany,

Authorities did not say whether the three had planned specific targets and offered few details, but security officials said that all three suspects were of Moroccan origin. They also said that two were arrested were in the western German city of Duesseldorf and one in nearby Bochum. The arrests were based on suspicion they were planning a terror attack, they said.

The arrests "succeeded in averting a concrete and imminent danger, presented by international terrorism," German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement. They showed "Germany remains a target of international terrorists."

Germany has escaped any large-scale attack by an Islamic terror organization, such as the Madrid train bombings of 2004 and the London transit attacks of 2005. But Germany's presence as part of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan has sparked anger and at least two major plots have been thwarted or failed in Germany before they could be carried out.

The suspects had been under surveillance since November when Germany increased security across the country in response to heightened terror threat warnings in Europe, but authorities only had enough evidence to launch an official criminal investigation starting April 15, German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement.

Federal prosecutors said earlier they had ordered Germany's federal police to arrest the trio, but gave no further information about the timing or location of the arrests. Officials were planning a news conference for Saturday.

A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing investigation told The Associated Press in Washington D.C. that a SWAT team picked up three people in a raid on suspicion they were planning an attack with explosives.

"Our concerns about threats in Europe had a number of different threads and strands, some of which have been disrupted by good intelligence and law enforcement work by the relevant services," another U.S. official told the AP on condition of anonymity.

"There have been five disrupted plots in Europe during the past four years ? including a credible plot in Germany in 2007 ? all of which demonstrate Pakistan-based al-Qaida's steadfast intent to attack the US and our allies."

Duesseldorf, a city of 600,000 has one of the largest Moroccan immigrant communities in Germany. It is to host the Eurovision Song Contest on May 14, which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of spectators.

The German prosecutors said the three alleged terrorists would be brought before a judge Saturday who will decide whether they are to remain in detention pending a trial.

Germany raised its security posture in November after receiving information from its own and foreign intelligence services that led authorities to believe a sleeper cell of some 20 to 25 people may have been planning an attack inside the country or in another European nation.

Around the same time Germany also received information from U.S. sources that an attack similar to that in Mumbai in Nov. 2008 that killed 166 may be planned for Germany, the official said. Later, Germany received information on possible attacks at Christmas or New Year's.

In February, the German government lowered the terror level and reduced the number of police officers patrolling railway stations and other public places, but made clear at the time that a threat to the country still remains.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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Morocca: al-Qaida suspect in cafe blast

MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) — The style of the bomb that killed 16 people in a crowded tourist cafe matches al-Qaida's, Morocco's interior minister said Friday.

var data = blocks.columnist;if (data != undefined){document.getElementById('columnistmug').innerHTML=data;} By Abdelhak Senna, AFP/Getty Images

Moroccan protesters rally in front of Argana Cafe, the site of Thursday's bomb attack.

By Abdelhak Senna, AFP/Getty Images

Moroccan protesters rally in front of Argana Cafe, the site of Thursday's bomb attack.

Taib Cherqaoui raised the death toll in Thursday's attack on a cafe sitting on a famed square in Marrakech to 16 ? 14 of them foreigners, mostly Europeans and at least half of them French.

He said 25 people were injured, 14 of them hospitalized.

The bomb was triggered remotely and packed with nails. Some were found at the scene of the blast, others in the bodies of victims, Cherqaoui said.

"The manner reminds us of the style used generally by al-Qaida," Cherqaoui said. "And this leads us to think that there is a possibility of more dangers to come."

No one has claimed responsibility for Morocco's deadliest attack since 2003.

Morocco has regularly dismantled al-Qaida cells and at times said it had stopped plots in the making. Thousands of Islamists, either suspects or convicted in terror-linked affairs, are in Moroccan jails.

In the first official breakdown of victims, the minister said that 16 people had died ? the latest a French woman who died late afternoon Friday in a hospital.

Two Moroccans were killed in the blast that tore the facade off the second-story of the Argana cafe in the historic Djemma el-Fna square, one of the top attractions in a country that depends heavily on tourism.

At least seven of the 14 foreigners were French, two were Canadian, one Dutch and one British, the minister said. Experts were still trying to identify the other three through DNA, he said. However, he included them among the foreigners killed.

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