A Defiant Qaddafi Says He Survived Attack

Libyan state television broadcast a brief recorded audio message from the Libyan leader at midevening, in which he said he wanted to reassure Libyans concerned about the airstrikes on his Bab al-Aziziya compound early Thursday. At least three huge bombs struck at separate parts of the subterranean network of passages and bunkers.

“I tell the coward crusaders: I live in a place where you can’t get me,” Colonel Qaddafi said. “I live in the hearts of millions.”

The message was broadcast as Libyan officials asserted that another NATO airstrike, on the government-held oil city of Brega, 500 miles from Tripoli and the easternmost stronghold of the Qaddafi forces, had struck a guesthouse early Friday and killed 11 Muslim clerics and injured 45 other clerics and officials who were gathered in the city on what the government officials described as a peace mission.

Moussa Ibrahim, the chief spokesman for the Qaddafi government, said the victims were asleep when the bomb struck, obliterating what had served as an oil company guesthouse until the war here broke out in mid-February. He showed a video of a large group of men whom he described as members of the peace group assembled beside the harbor in Brega at sunset on Thursday, and a separate video, taken on Friday, showing what he described as the bodies of some of the bombing victims arrayed on blankets on a floor.

Mr. Ibrahim’s account could not be independently verified. If confirmed, it would amount to the heaviest civilian toll from a NATO airstrike on a government-controlled area since the bombing began on March 19. A NATO spokeswoman in Brussels, Carmen Romero, confirmed that an attack had been conducted overnight at Brega, striking what she described as a command-and-control center for the Qaddafi forces. “Our targets are solely military,” she said.

The propaganda value that the Qaddafi government saw in the Brega attack was underscored by its decision to hold a news conference about the airstrike at one of the principal mosques in central Tripoli, with rows of Muslim and Orthodox Christian clerics seated under a canopy in the courtyard.

One of the Muslim clerics, Nouri Adin al-Mejrab, called on Muslims around the world to avenge the deaths of the 11 clerics with attacks that would kill 1,000 people for each of those killed in Brega. He said the attacks should take place in the countries that have joined in the NATO air campaign, including the United States, Britain, France, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

“We will call on Muslims around the world to take revenge for all the victims of the NATO attacks,” Mr. Mejrab said. “For every one of our martyrs, we will call on them to take down 1,000 people.”

Other senior clerics warned that the NATO strikes were sowing hatred against the West in Libya and generating a yearning for revenge among a Muslim population that they said had previously been moderate.

For weeks, rabid anti-Western rhetoric has been intensifying among Libyan officials and finding a voice among the small crowds of pro-Qaddafi demonstrators who turn up wherever foreign reporters are taken by a government corps of minders and guides. While staged for television cameras, the threats seem likely to lead to heightened vigilance among Western counterterrorism officials, who are already on high alert in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Libya’s huge secret intelligence apparatus, developed under Colonel Qaddafi’s 40-year rule, has shown on many occasions that it can strike back at Libya’s Western foes. The worst of the attacks was in December 1988, when a bomb planted by Libyan agents exploded aboard Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

The Qaddafi government’s campaign against the NATO bombings has been weakened recently by the government’s propensity to make unconvincing propaganda out of the strikes — inaccurately representing the targets, and the victims, as purely civilian, for example, and disguising the targets’ military significance, not always effectively.

That appeared to be the case on a guided tour for reporters of the Bab al-Aziziya leadership compound on Thursday, when officials described the three bombs as errant strikes that had killed three civilians, while striking nothing of strategic value.

 

Broad Taliban Attack Paralyzes Kandahar

Although the attack, the first major campaign in the Taliban’s announced spring offensive, did not kill many people, the insurgents made clear that they could muster their followers, tie up one of Afghanistan’s largest population centers and elude a heavy police and military presence.

The attack ended as night fell Sunday, when the last two suicide bombers were killed in a hotel near the provincial headquarters of the national intelligence department. Spent casings littered the streets “like hail after a storm,” one Kandahar resident said, and ranks of police officers stood guard at official buildings.

The scale and organization of the attack as well as the targeting of government buildings suggested that the Taliban had been planning it for some time — and that they had relied on support from inside Kandahar.

Among the places singled out were the provincial governor’s palace, the police headquarters, the transportation police headquarters, a police substation and other buildings used by the military, according to a NATO statement.

Those are among the most well-guarded spots in Kandahar, the biggest city in southern Afghanistan and a major base for NATO forces. Still, the 27 insurgent fighters involved in the attacks were able to move in those areas while toting explosive vests or driving vehicles laden with explosives, raising questions about complicity with the attacks.

“How can a big number of armed people with suicide car bombs enter the city?” asked Mohammed Umar Sathi, a political analyst and Kandahar resident.

“How are they able to occupy nearby buildings and stage themselves so they can shoot on the governor’s office and the N.D.S. department?” he asked, referring to the National Directorate of Security, the intelligence department.

“Either the security forces are incompetent, or they have no coordination among each other,” he said. “Also, we have foreign forces who have responsibility for securing the city.”

The scale of the attack suggested that despite NATO’s ability to kill large numbers of fighters, which they say discourages others from joining the cause, there is still a substantial reservoir of men willing to fight to the death.

Of the 27 attackers, according to the provincial governor, Tooryalai Wesa, 13 were killed in combat and 7 were killed when they exploded their suicide bombs. Another seven fighters were detained.

At least two security officers were killed: a police officer and an intelligence officer. A civilian was killed, as was one other person whose identity was unclear, according to doctors at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar. Doctors said that of 45 people who came to the hospital emergency room, 20 were treated and released while the others were kept for treatment. At least three were in critical condition.

The attacks frustrated and depressed Kandahar residents.

“People are really in trouble; this is the second day the bazaar is closed,” said Abdul Qadus, the owner of a textile shop, who had to leave the market suddenly Saturday when gunmen climbed on the roof of a building near where he worked and began to shoot. “People need to work, they need to buy something and earn their living, but in such circumstances you are not able to come outside.”

As the shooting stopped, the police and intelligence officers found one explosives-rigged vehicle after another: cars, rickshaws, motorcycles and wheelbarrows. In all, 20 vehicles were found with undetonated explosives, said a senior officer at the intelligence department. It was not clear why.

Governor Wesa, who was one of the targets of the attack — the Taliban fired into his compound — implored the insurgents to take advantage of this moment in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden and lay down their arms.

“I am advising them not to kill themselves nor harm civilians nor destroy the country,” he said at a hastily called news conference. “Come and put down your weapons and join the peace and reconciliation process. You will be protected, your blood will be protected and your property will be protected. You will have a normal life in your own country.”

Governor Wesa was not the only one ready to offer the attackers a political solution.

Mohammed Nadeem Khan, a high school teacher who was standing in line to buy bread for his family as sporadic gunfire sounded in the distance, shook his head and spoke as if he were talking to the Taliban.

“I don’t know the aim of these Taliban or opposition or whatever you call them. What do they want? Power? Do they think by occupying a building, then starting shooting or detonating themselves, someone will give power? I don’t think so,” he said.

He continued: “If you really want to free Afghanistan from foreigners or bring justice to the people of Afghanistan, please appear in a political shape: come with logical reasons for the people to follow you, present a reasonable and proper solution for all these conflicts, get rid of corruption and I will support you, the people of Afghanistan will support you. But by destruction and killing, no one will support you. You will get nothing.”

Taimoor Shah reported from Kandahar, and Alissa J. Rubin from Kabul, Afghanistan.

 

As Syria Steps Up Efforts to Crush Unrest, Dissidents Report Attack on a City

The military’s move against Baniyas, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city that witnessed some of the largest protests in nationwide demonstrations a day earlier, was another signal that the Syrian government was determined to crush by force dissent that has posed a sweeping challenge to President Bashar al-Assad’s 11-year rule.

The attack mirrored other assaults since Friday on Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, and a restive town on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital. It comes nearly two weeks after the military stormed and effectively occupied Dara’a, a poor town in a drought-stricken region near the border with Jordan where protests have galvanized demonstrations across the country.

Reports were scant, as the military succeeded in blocking communication with most people in Baniyas. Opposition groups, relying on their networks there, said that the military entered the city from three directions under the cover of night and that civilians were trying to block their deployment. There were no immediate reports of fatalities, but opposition groups reported hearing intense gunfire over the phone lines.

Gunboats were also spotted off the coast.

“Land lines and cellphones have been out since dawn, and power outages are spreading,” one activist said on the condition of anonymity, citing reports from Baniyas.

Soon after entering the town, security forces began making arrests, though there were no precise numbers, said Wissam Tarif, the executive director of Insan, a human rights group.

“Basically, we don’t know what’s happening in Baniyas,” he said, adding that he had been talking with someone by phone and “heard firing, bullets, shooting and screaming, and then we lost contact.”

For days, residents had braced for an attack on Baniyas, as the Syrian military deployed scores of tanks and armored vehicles to the city’s southern outskirts. Paramilitary groups were said to have massed at its northern edge, populated by members of the minority Alawite sect, from which Mr. Assad’s government draws much of its support.

“They are preparing a scenario to justify raiding the city,” a resident said by phone on Friday. “They don’t have one yet, and that is why they haven’t entered yet. When they do, they will make Baniyas a lesson to all the Syrians, and it is going to be ugly.”

On Friday, security forces fired on demonstrators in six towns and cities in a day of protests that activists declared a “Friday of Defiance,” killing at least 41 people. But a crackdown that has escalated over the past two weeks managed to subdue Dara’a and prevented many protesters from gathering in larger demonstrations, particularly on the outskirts of Damascus, activists and human rights groups said.

The worst violence was reported in Homs, where activists described a chaotic, bloody day, as tanks entered the town and areas around it. The government said 10 soldiers were killed there by what it described as “terrorists,” while activists said at least nine soldiers had defected to their side. Seventeen protesters were killed, they said.

Only in Baniyas and Jassem, a town near Dara’a, were demonstrators able to mass in larger protests. The resident in Baniyas said that protesters there had carried olive branches and red and white roses to hand to soldiers if the troops entered the city. They did, but only in the early hours of Saturday morning when many were sleeping.

The resident estimated that the crowd on Friday numbered at least 7,000, many of whom chanted for freedom, for the government’s fall and for the military to lift its siege of Dara’a.

The authorities have described Baniyas as a center of militant Islamists, and even some activists acknowledge that militants have a presence there, though by no means a majority. Civic leaders in Baniyas have insisted that the charge is a government ploy to stoke tensions between Sunni Muslims and Alawites, one of the fault lines in a country troubled by smoldering sectarian tensions between the Sunni Muslim majority and minorities of Christians and heterodox Muslim sects. Eastern Syria is populated by an ethnic minority, Kurds, who appeared to turn out in greater numbers in the streets on Friday.

Security forces, with the help of the military, also moved against the town of Zabadani, on the edge of Damascus. Mr. Tarif said that electricity and communications were cut to the town from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, and checkpoints remained across the town. His group documented at least 80 arrests over that period, he said.

Mr. Tarif suggested that the assaults on Baniyas, Homs and Zabadani borrowed a page from the military’s attack on Dara’a and signaled the government’s intent to methodically move against centers of protest in the country with overwhelming force.

“They are doing it city by city,” he said. “The regime is willing to take it to the maximum, and they are willing to increase the brutality to the maximum.”

Mr. Assad, who inherited power from his father, Hafez, in 2000, initially claimed that Syria was immune to the tumult sweeping the Arab world. When the uprising erupted in Dara’a, he responded with a mix of crackdowns and concessions that proved largely cosmetic. For the past two weeks, the government has almost entirely relied on force, and there appears to be a sense in official circles that the government has the upper hand.

So far, hundreds have been killed, and Mr. Tarif’s group estimated that as many as 4,000 have been detained, often for a few days, since the crackdown escalated.

But administration officials have suggested that the government is worried about growing condemnation abroad; the European Union on Friday banned travel for and froze the assets of 14 Syrian officials, though not Mr. Assad.

The crackdown’s severity has also angered Turkey, Syria’s neighbor and one of its closest allies, though there appears to be disagreement in the Turkish government over whether Mr. Assad is unable or unwilling to carry out broader reform in a country that remains one of the region’s most authoritarian.

View the original article here

Deadly Attack by Insurgents in Kandahar

KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents staged a complicated attack in Kandahar on Saturday that killed four, including an intelligence officer, a police officer and two civilians, and wounded 45 people.

A 7-year-old girl who was shot in the back and her father being evacuated Saturday by helicopter. The assault lasted six hours.

Three of the wounded were in critical condition, according to doctors at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar.

The insurgents’ force included at least six suicide bombers who took over buildings near the governor’s office and another near the governor’s home, as well as one near the intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security. Early Sunday, the situation remained tense, with civilian cars blocked from using the roads, shops closed and the police guarding every crossroad as helicopters roared overhead.

Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar Province, said on Saturday that it had been a “hard day for Kandahari people.”

The attack, which lasted more than six hours, came just two weeks after a jailbreak in which nearly 500 prisoners escaped, most from the secure section of the prison where Taliban detainees are held.

Late Saturday, explosions and gunfire could still be heard, and at least one insurgent was still fighting near a traffic intersection, residents said. But it appeared possible there were also insurgents elsewhere in the city.

It was the first major attack since the killing of Osama bin Laden by a Navy Seal team in Pakistan on Monday.

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Bits: Password Service Warns of Possible Hacking Attack

 

5:28 p.m. | Updated Adding more background and information from interview with the company’s chief executive.

LastPass, a service for managing passwords, said late Wednesday that out of concern about a possible hacking attack, it would force its more than 1 million users to change their master passwords, which they use to retrieve passwords for other sites across the Web.

The news comes in the wake of several recent high-profile hacks of computer-security companies, including another maker of technology designed to make access to Web sites more secure, RSA Security.

In a blog post, LastPass, which offers free and paid products, said that last Tuesday it had detected two “traffic anomalies,” including one leaving the company’s database, and could not explain the causes. That sparked fears that intruders may have made off with user information.

“We’re going to be paranoid and assume the worst,” LastPass said. It said its analysis so far suggests hackers could have acquired users’ e-mail addresses and might be able to decipher their master passwords using “brute force” methods, if those passwords are simple enough.

In addition to requiring its users to set new master passwords, LastPass said it would confirm that users of its system are legitimate by matching the numerical Internet Protocol addresses tied to their computers with IP addresses used by them in the past, or by validating them through e-mail.

The password information stored by LastPass clearly makes it a tempting target for hackers.

“The data that they store, it’s the keys to the kingdom” for many consumers and company employees using LastPass to store passwords for bank accounts and sensitive corporate systems, said Jeremy Conway, a senior threat researcher at NitroSecurity, who was formerly part of the team defending NASA’s network. “It’s a high-value target.”

But security professionals praised LastPass’s swift disclosure and action to protect users as a model of how to handle a security problem. Security experts have been relentless in their criticism of other companies that have suffered hacks recently and were slow to report them or provided few details.

Two security firms, RSA, whose SecurID technology was raided by hackers, and Comodo, whose system for certifying Web site authenticity was hit, have come under particular criticism for security fumbles and slow or incomplete disclosure.

However, some, including Mr. Conway, questioned the adequacy of LastPass’s internal security, noting that the company’s description of the incident suggested it was not using available technology that would provide more visibility into activities on its network and are necessary to understanding the true extent of a data breach.

“They don’t know what data was accessed. Why not?” Mr. Conway said. “It shows that they are immature in their security practices. They have issues they need to address.”

Joe Siegrist, LastPass’s chief executive, said that the growing popularity of the company’s service has made it more attractive to attackers, and that it would look for ways to make itself harder to hit. For one, he said he would hire a security firm to audit its systems.

LastPass’s rapid action also sparked problems for some users. The company was triggering password resets by asking users to enter the e-mail address associated with their account when they entered in their master password, and then sending an e-mail with a link to a site where they would enter a new master password. In a Catch-22, many users found they were unable to get the e-mail because, without a working master password, they were locked out of their e-mail accounts. Others ran into different roadblocks trying to reset their master passwords.

“Was this mandatory panic thoroughly thought about before being initiated?” asked one anonymous “paying customer” who commented on LastPass’s blog post. “It will take a lot for Lastpass to restore trust in the system, because I am out as soon as this fiasco is over.”

LastPass conceded that its systems were overwhelmed by the task of resetting so many passwords and responding to customers running into difficulties. In response, it slowed things down by forcing immediate resets only on users visiting its service from unfamiliar IP addresses. And it encouraged other users to wait to reset their master passwords until LastPass prompted them to do so.

With the extent of the potential breach unknown, experts said extra-cautious users may also want to change their passwords, especially for sensitive accounts, stored with LastPass.

View the original article here

Bits: Password Service Warns of Possible Hacking Attack

 

5:28 p.m. | Updated Adding more background and information from interview with the company’s chief executive.

LastPass, a service for managing passwords, said late Wednesday that out of concern about a possible hacking attack, it would force its more than 1 million users to change their master passwords, which they use to retrieve passwords for other sites across the Web.

The news comes in the wake of several recent high-profile hacks of computer-security companies, including another maker of technology designed to make access to Web sites more secure, RSA Security.

In a blog post, LastPass, which offers free and paid products, said that last Tuesday it had detected two “traffic anomalies,” including one leaving the company’s database, and could not explain the causes. That sparked fears that intruders may have made off with user information.

“We’re going to be paranoid and assume the worst,” LastPass said. It said its analysis so far suggests hackers could have acquired users’ e-mail addresses and might be able to decipher their master passwords using “brute force” methods, if those passwords are simple enough.

In addition to requiring its users to set new master passwords, LastPass said it would confirm that users of its system are legitimate by matching the numerical Internet Protocol addresses tied to their computers with IP addresses used by them in the past, or by validating them through e-mail.

The password information stored by LastPass clearly makes it a tempting target for hackers.

“The data that they store, it’s the keys to the kingdom” for many consumers and company employees using LastPass to store passwords for bank accounts and sensitive corporate systems, said Jeremy Conway, a senior threat researcher at NitroSecurity, who was formerly part of the team defending NASA’s network. “It’s a high-value target.”

But security professionals praised LastPass’s swift disclosure and action to protect users as a model of how to handle a security problem. Security experts have been relentless in their criticism of other companies that have suffered hacks recently and were slow to report them or provided few details.

Two security firms, RSA, whose SecurID technology was raided by hackers, and Comodo, whose system for certifying Web site authenticity was hit, have come under particular criticism for security fumbles and slow or incomplete disclosure.

However, some, including Mr. Conway, questioned the adequacy of LastPass’s internal security, noting that the company’s description of the incident suggested it was not using available technology that would provide more visibility into activities on its network and are necessary to understanding the true extent of a data breach.

“They don’t know what data was accessed. Why not?” Mr. Conway said. “It shows that they are immature in their security practices. They have issues they need to address.”

Joe Siegrist, LastPass’s chief executive, said that the growing popularity of the company’s service has made it more attractive to attackers, and that it would look for ways to make itself harder to hit. For one, he said he would hire a security firm to audit its systems.

LastPass’s rapid action also sparked problems for some users. The company was triggering password resets by asking users to enter the e-mail address associated with their account when they entered in their master password, and then sending an e-mail with a link to a site where they would enter a new master password. In a Catch-22, many users found they were unable to get the e-mail because, without a working master password, they were locked out of their e-mail accounts. Others ran into different roadblocks trying to reset their master passwords.

“Was this mandatory panic thoroughly thought about before being initiated?” asked one anonymous “paying customer” who commented on LastPass’s blog post. “It will take a lot for Lastpass to restore trust in the system, because I am out as soon as this fiasco is over.”

LastPass conceded that its systems were overwhelmed by the task of resetting so many passwords and responding to customers running into difficulties. In response, it slowed things down by forcing immediate resets only on users visiting its service from unfamiliar IP addresses. And it encouraged other users to wait to reset their master passwords until LastPass prompted them to do so.

With the extent of the potential breach unknown, experts said extra-cautious users may also want to change their passwords, especially for sensitive accounts, stored with LastPass.

View the original article here

Local Iraqi Leaders Blame Al Qaeda for Attack

The attack underscored the continued struggles of Iraqi security forces to curb violence throughout the country. Although there are far fewer attacks than at the height of the sectarian war in 2007, there are still bombings and assassinations on a daily basis.

Around 7 a.m., the bomber drove a car packed with explosives up to a check point outside the training center in downtown Hilla, detonating the explosives while a bus drove by, according to the security official.

At the time, there was a shift change at the training center, which increased the number of officers in the area, the official said.

“The central government is responsible for this explosion,” said the local official, Kathum Majed Toma, who is the head of Babil’s provincial council. “We requested many times for them to provide us with sonar devices to detect explosives and for them to hire more security forces so we can secure our province but they did not reply.”

The explosion knocked over several blast walls and damaged the front rooms of the training center, as well as several homes.

The attack was the deadliest in Iraq since terrorists here promised to increase violence in response to Osama bin Laden’s death in the early hours Monday.

"This was a breach of our security by Al Qaeda," said Haider Zanbor, the head of the province’s security committee. "We were expecting that Babil would be the target of revenge for the killing of bin Laden. We will increase the security procedure to prevent this from happening again."

Members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a Sunni group, have conducted dozens of attacks in the city in recent years, including several targeted at police and security officials. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

At a press conference in Baghdad on Wednesday, one of the country’s top law enforcement officials, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, said that “there are still some cells able to work in Iraq and able to implement a terrorist act.”

However, Mr. Atta, who is the spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, which controls the police and army, stressed that Iraqi security forces are prepared to maintain security after American forces withdraw all by the end of the year.

Yasir Ghazi and Duraid Adnan contributed reporting from Baghdad. An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Hilla.

 

Al Qaeda Attack Was Thwarted By Three Arrests, Germany Says

BERLIN — The German police arrested three men suspected of being members of Al Qaeda on Friday, saying they represented “a concrete and imminent danger” to the nation and had been planning an attack using explosives.

The German authorities presented the bare outlines of a terrorism plot that they said involved at least one person trained at a militant camp in Afghanistan or Pakistan and a cache of material for producing explosives. The men had been under surveillance for seven months, but the authorities said they decided to move fast when the three began preparations for testing an explosive device.

“We succeeded in preventing a concrete and imminent danger,” the interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, said in a statement that acknowledged assistance from foreign investigators. “This proves that Germany continues to be in the cross hairs of international terrorists, and we need to remain vigilant.”

The authorities said more information would be released at the federal prosecutor’s headquarters in Karlsruhe on Saturday, when the men would be brought before a judge. But some details emerged from law enforcement officials and the German news media, which said at least two of the men were Moroccan, one with German citizenship and the other living in Germany illegally. The third was said to be a German of Iranian descent, though some reports said he was of Moroccan descent.

It was not at clear if there was any connection between the arrests and the terrorist attack in Morocco on Thursday, when at least 16 people were killed after a bomb was detonated in a packed cafe in the popular tourist city of Marrakesh. But experts said it was likely that Moroccan and German intelligence services had recently cooperated.

The German news media reported that the three suspects had been taken into custody in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and that the authorities had confiscated materials for making explosives, including acetone, a volatile substance that terrorists often use. Officials identified the suspects only as Abdeladim K., Jamil S. and Ahmed Sh. German authorities do not typically release the names of criminal suspects.

According to the newspaper Bild, one of the men was from Düsseldorf and the other two were from nearby cities, Essen and Bochum. All three were arrested at 6:30 a.m. in raids in Düsseldorf and Bochum.

The target was uncertain. Bild, Germany’s most widely read and generally reliable newspaper, reported that the terrorist cell might have planned to hit the popular Eurovision Song Contest on May 14, though that event’s organizers said they had not been alerted to any such threat.

The newspaper Die Welt anonymously quoted an investigator as saying that the suspects were planning to attack public transportation in a large German city. An American official who was briefed on the operation said the plot was aimed at buses or depots.

The arrests and accusations, which combined elements of homegrown terrorism with concerns about the lawless Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, shook Germany’s sense of calm. The country was put on edge last year as well after a terrorism alert involving what the authorities said was concrete information of a planned attack.

The increased security measures established at public areas like transportation hubs had eased in recent months, but law enforcement had quietly continued to pursue leads on the threats aggressively, including a suggestion that terrorists planned to strike the Reichstag, home to the lower house of Parliament.

Wolfgang Bosbach, a member of the lower house and chairman of the Committee on Internal Affairs, said investigators had closely monitored travel to the Afghan border area and noted “a significant number of returnees.”

“The recent arrests must not surprise anyone who deals seriously with the matter,” Mr. Bosbach said.

The Rhine-Main region has a large population with ties to North Africa and is one of Germany’s centers of the Salafist movement, a radical fundamentalist school of Islamic thinking, along with Hamburg, Berlin and the region around Frankfurt, according to Guido Steinberg, an expert on terrorism with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

“We do not know yet exactly how big this is,” Mr. Steinberg said. “But that something could happen this year is anything but absurd. The Salafist scene has grown significantly in Germany in recent years. The number of converts has increased substantially as well.”

According to the official Germany News agency, the three men had planned to test an explosive on Thursday night, but delayed for some reason. The authorities said the men were arrested without previously issued warrants, perhaps indicating a decision to move quickly.

Souad Mekhennet contributed reporting from Marrakesh, Morocco; Jack Ewing from Frankfurt; and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

 

Watch: Nesting Hawks Attack Pedestrians

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

Mom Made Child Sick, Police Say

Blanca Montano is charged with intentionally sickening her 7-month-old baby.

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