Germany: Muhammed cartoons motive for bombs

A Lebanese prosecutor Saturday charged six suspects held in Lebanon and Germany of attempting to kill a large number of people in a failed plot to bomb two trains in Germany, court officials said.

The accused include four Lebanese men who were detained in Lebanon recently and two, a Lebanese and a Syrian, who are held in Germany and charged here in absentia, the officals said.

The move appeared to mean Beirut would refuse to extradite to Germany the four men held in Lebanon.

Prosecutor Pierre Francis referred the four to a magistrate for further questioning on charges of attempting to commit "mass killings and starting fires with inflammable materials in German passenger trains" in July, the officials said.

The charges came as a security team headed by German intelligence chief Ernst Uhrlau, was in Beirut meeting with Lebanese army intelligence and security chiefs. Uhrlau arrived under tight security Friday in what Lebanese newspapers said was a mission to seek the extradition of the four accomplices held in Beirut.

The two main suspects — one held in Lebanon and the other in Germany — are suspected of planting crude bombs July 31 on two trains at Cologne station, where they were seen in grainy surveillance camera video pulling wheeled suitcases.

The bombs were found later in the day on regional trains in Koblenz and Dortmund. Authorities have said that the detonators went off but failed to ignite the devices.

Youssef Mohamad el-Hajdib, 21, was arrested Aug. 19 in the northern German city of Kiel, and Jihad Hamad, 20, was picked up a few days later in Lebanon.

They were partially motivated by anger over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, said Joerg Ziercke, head of Germany's Federal Crime Office, or BKA, in remarks released Saturday.

So what else motivated them?

According to Dutch news, Joerg Ziercke, basing himself on statements made by one of the suspects held in Lebanon, says they were motivated by:

1. The publication of the Muhammed cartoons in the German media. It was interpretaed by Youssef el-Hadjib as an attack of the Western World on Islam.

2. The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. The two top suspects believed that international terrorism has lost one its most important leaders.

Notice that the war in Lebanon does not figure in at all.

Sources: International Herald Tribune (English) , Volkskrant (Dutch)