Arrested German spies implicated in bombing of EU office in Kosovo: report
Berlin, Nov 22, IRNA
Germany-Kosovo-BND
Three Germans arrested in Kosovo Wednesday for their alleged role in the bombing attack of the European Union (EU) headquarters in Pristina were German BND secret service agents, according to the Hamburg-based Der Spiegel news magazine which did not cite sources for its report.
Kosovar anti-terror investigators accuse the BND spies of being involved in the November 14 bomb blast of the EU office in which no one was hurt.
The BND agents claim they had merely inspected the bombing site.
The BND bureau in Berlin has yet to respond to the report.
One of the accused German operatives was seen getting into a vacant building, located next to the EU office, from where the explosive device was thrown.
The agent had reportedly photographed the damaged EU bureau.
The arrest has soured ties between Germany and Kosovo as the BND operatives were not officially registered with the Kosovan government.
The German agent trio was not part of the formal representatives of Germany’s foreign secret service.
Berlin refused to comment Friday on the BND scandal in Kosovo, pointing to the ongoing investigation.
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman did say that if it was true that any of the three were BND employees, the matter would be referred to the parliamentary control committee in charge of monitoring the intelligence services.
In 2005 the BND (apparently intentionally) leaked a memo on Thaçi exposing his connections to organized crime. German newspapers are now speculating that Thaçi is holding a grudge against the BND which lead to the arrest of the German agents. The German agents were indeed only documenting the damages done to the EU office.