Arrest order for Syrian suspect in German bomb plot

BERLIN, Aug 26 (Reuters) German authorities issued an arrest warrant today for a Syrian suspect in a failed plot to detonate bombs on German trains last month.

A spokesman for the Federal Prosecutors Office said a Syrian man taken into temporary custody yesterday in the city of Konstanz was questioned by a custodial judge for several hours before the warrant was issued.

The prosecutors office said the 23-year-old, a student in Konstanz identified as Fadi A.S., was believed to have done Internet research with other suspects on how to build a bomb like the two suitcase devices that failed to explode.

Fadi A.S. is also believed to have helped others involved in the foiled attack flee through Turkey and Syria to Lebanon.

No formal charges have been filed yet against any of the four suspects, two of whom are in custody in Germany and two in Lebanon.

Prosecutors said all four are being investigated on suspicion of being in a terror group, attempted murder and a other charges following the plot that has shaken Germany.

German prosecutors believe Fadi A.S. has links to one of the two main suspects, Youssef Mohamad E.H. The 21-year-old Lebanese man was the first to be arrested, a week ago in in the northern town of Kiel, and is now in a Berlin prison.

Youssef Mohamad E.H. was identified on security camera footage that appeared to show him dragging a suitcase on to a train in Cologne last month.

On Friday a senior Lebanese judicial source in Beirut said authorities had arrested a fourth suspect.

The Lebanese source said the 24-year-old Lebanese man, with the initials K. H. D., was arrested based on information provided by Jihad Hamad, a 20-year-old who had turned himself in to Lebanese authorities on Thursday.

Suitcases like those in the footage were found packed with propane gas tanks and crude detonating devices on trains in the Dortmund and Koblenz. The explosives failed to detonate.

A poll today by RTL television found that 73 percent of Germans expect Germany will face further terror attacks.

REUTERS PDM PC2326