Austria: Al-Qaeda cell under investigation

Austria: Al-Qaeda cell under investigation


The speaker of the Austrian public prosecutor's office, Gerhard Jarosch, confirmed on Wednesday in Vienna that the Austrian police have been investigating the Austrian Al-Qaeda cell.


Jarosch said at the Austrian TV "ORF-Noonnews" that 12 suspected persons engaging in the terror network Al-Qaeda were investigated, and some of them are Arab Austrian, Turk and Arab living in Austria. Most of them are young people.


However, there is no evidence that the group intended to launch terrorist attacks in Austria or Europe.


According to a report the News magazine will publish on Thursday, the Al-Qaeda cell in Austria might be headed by Abdulrahmen Hussein, who was Austrian citizen born in Moedling, Lower Austria in 1983.


The report, based on documents from the Office for Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism (BVT), said that Abdulrahmen Hussein, together with four other main suspects of the Austrian Al-Qaeda cell, had been trained at an Al-Qaeda camp from August to October 2005.


The report also claimed that since Austria was informed by the U.S. intelligence agency at the end of 2005, the Austrian police had been investigating this group for more than 3 years. Abdulrahmen Hussein and another main suspect had died, while three other cell members were abroad, one of them in prison in Tunisia.


Source: Xinhua (English)

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