Germany charges Iraqi with supporting militants

BERLIN, Feb 13 (Reuters) German authorities have formally charged a 37-year-old Iraqi citizen with supporting Ansar al-Islam, a militant group Washington has linked to al Qaeda in Iraq, federal prosecutors said today.

The man has been formally charged with supporting a terrorist organisation and violating German foreign trade regulations, the Federal Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

The man, identified as Burhan B, was arrested at Frankfurt airport in June 2006.

He is accused of transferring 22,000 euros (28,510 dollars) to the group in Iraq between November 2003 and May 2004.

Burhan B was a close associate of Ata A R, an accused ringleader of Ansar al-Islam in Germany and one of three men currently on trial in Stuttgart for allegedly plotting in December 2004 to assassinate Iyad Allawi, then prime minister of Iraq, during a visit to Germany.

The United States says Ansar al-Islam is linked to al Qaeda in Iraq and has been responsible for attacks on US and other coalition forces in Iraq.

The Prosecutor's Office said the group was founded in September 2001 in northern Iraq and has members who are predominantly radical Islamists.

Its goal is the creation of a fundamentalist Islamic state similar to the one the Taliban created in Afghanistan before it was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2001, it said.

The group has members and a support network spread across western Europe, it added.

REUTERS DKA RN1622