Is He Germany's First Suicide Bomber?
From Spiegel Online
The on-going debate in Germany about the growing threat posed by homegrown Islamic terrorists is about to shift into a higher gear. Remember, last September German police arrested three Islamists (one Turk and two German converts) who were plotting a massive car bombing of Frankfurt airport on the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. That incident was already enough to trigger another acrimonious political debate about how far the government can go to fight terrorism and protect the homeland.
Now there are new reports that a 28-year old German-born Turkish citizen allegedly linked to the Frankfurt bombers and identified as Cüneyt C. carried out a suicide attack on U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan on March 3. The blast killed two American soldiers and two Afghan civilians. If the statement posted on the website of the Uzbek terror group Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) is true, that would make him the first suicide bomber from Germany. The IJU hails Cüneyt C. as "a brave Turk who came from Germany and gave up his luxury life style to enter paradise."
According to Germany’s Federal Criminal Agency BKA, Cüneyt C., who left Germany with his wife and two children in April 2007, is thought to have traveled to Afghanistan via Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan. At least so far, there’s no proof that Cüneyt C. was indeed the man who crashed an explosives-laden car into the gates of the government district center in the Yaqoubi district, about a one-hour drive from the Afghan-Pakistani border. German investigators are still working with their U.S. and Afghan counterparts to obtain relevant DNA evidence to confirm the identity of the March 3 suicide bomber. As one German officer put it, "We do not have any 100 percent evidence that Cüneyt C. was part of the attack, but the story is too plausible to be a simple propaganda hoax." The IJU has already announced that it will post Cüneyt’s video testament in the days to come.
For sure, the fact that Islamic terrorists who grew up in Germany go to Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. to fight the jihad is nothing new. Last October, for example, Turkish citizen Sadullah K. from the state of Hesse was killed on the battlefield in Pakistan. But the thought that Turks who grew up in Germany (and often hold both passports) could now turned into deadly suicide bombers represents a nightmare scenario for German security forces.