'Germany facing threat even if attack failed'

Berlin, Aug 27: Germany's top crime fighter said today the country faced a serious terrorism threat even after making a series of arrests following a failed plot to detonate bombs on crowded trains.

Joerg Ziercke, president of the BKA federal crime office, said he was alarmed that a group of foreign students from Lebanon and Syria had almost succeeded in carrying out their July 31 attack without being detected.

''The immediate threat has been contained with the recent arrests,'' Ziercke told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, referring to the arrests of two suspects in Germany and two further suspects in Lebanon in the last week.

''There is still a major terror danger,'' he added. ''We have to deal with the question why, in this concrete case, did we recognise the danger so late? I'm very worried about that. But at the moment there are no indications of further terror cells.'' German authorities issued an arrest warrant yesterday for another suspect, a 23-year-old Syrian student in Konstanz named Fadi A.S., for his involvement in the plot to blow up two regional trains. The homemade bombs failed to explode.

''We got lucky this time,'' said Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. ''We could not have prevented it.'' The Federal Prosecutors Office said 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.

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He is also thought to have helped others involved in the botched attack flee through Turkey and Syria to Lebanon. No formal charges have been filed against any of the arrested men.

Prosecutors said all four are being investigated on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist group, attempted murder and other charges.

The plot has shaken Germany, where fears of terrorist attacks were far lower than in many other Western countries.

Federal prosecutor Monika Harms said it was possible that further arrests could be made. She said it was unclear whether those arrested had contact to al Qaeda but urged caution against any hasty conclusions of links to Osama bin Laden's network.

''It's possible they have similar convictions as other extremist organisations, but it's possible there were other connections,'' she told German television.

Prosecutors believe Fadi AS has links to one of the mainsuspects, identified as Youssef Mohamad El Hajdib in the media.

The 21-year-old Lebanese man was the first to be arrested a week ago in the northern town of Kiel, and is now in a Berlin prison. He was identified on security camera footage that appeared to show him dragging a suitcase to a train in Cologne.

Der Spiegel news magazine reported today the students made many blunders building their homemade bomb, including using the wrong type of natural gas and leaving a slip of paper with the phone number of El Hajdib's father on it in the suitcase.

''For the first time in my teaching career I'm glad that I was ineffective,'' Hajdib's physics professor Juergen Mueller told Der Spiegel. He added Hajdib was not especially bright.

REUTERS