Dawood helping Germany attack plotters: Report

“The man believed to be trying to smuggle the would-be terrorists into Europe is 54-year-old Dawood Ibrahim,who the United Nations believes is a major backer of terrorism,” Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. It said that FBI has given this information to Germany.

The FBI sent a cable to the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) two weeks ago,saying a Shiite group known as “Saif” has engaged in a pact with al-Qaeda and is sending two men to Germany to carry out an attack there. Both were believed to be traveling to the UAE on Nov. 22,where they would be supplied with new travel papers so that they could continue on to Germany. They already posess visas for Europe’s Schengen zone of visa-free travel. The FBI has named Mushtaq Altaf bin-Khadri as the man behind the attack plans.

Der Spiegel said this was the second warning after a tip-off from a jihadi that six terrorists were planning to attack the parliament. The report said two of them “are already believed to be in Berlin”. “Four other perpetrators — a German,a Turk,a North African and a further man the jihadi could not identify — are currently waiting to travel to Germany. The attacks are purportedly being planned for February or March,” it said.

“As part of the attack,terrorists would seek to take hostages and perpetrate a bloodbath using firearms,” the report said. “The jihadi apparently wants to abandon the group. The information provided by the informant was apparently the reason behind German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière’s decision to hold a press conference on Wednesday warning of an imminent attack in the country.”

Security was immediately tightened around the Reichstag and measures were taken to protect other possible targets such as airports,railway stations and places of mass gatherings.