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ARIS, May 29 — Italian and German investigators have disclosed fresh information suggesting that hints of an attack involving aircraft and the United States were more widespread among European law enforcement agencies before Sept. 11 than previously suspected.The disclosures come after weeks in which the Bush administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which announced a shake-up today, have come under sharp criticism that they did not pay sufficient heed to signs of Al Qaeda plots in the United States that may have alerted them to the Sept. 11 attacks.A Central Intelligence Agency spokesman said today that before Sept....

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BERLIN: Information from a captured fighter now in Algerian custody may help authorities there mop up the remnants of the country’s leading Islamist militant group, a senior US military official said. Neighbours of the North African nation will also take a close interest in whatever intelligence Algeria can obtain from Amar Saifi, whom it accuses of “numerous terrorist crimes”. Saifi was number two in the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and is listed by the US as a terrorist organisation. He is also wanted in Germany in connection with the kidnapping...

KUALA LUMPUR: Convicted French terrorist Lionel Dumont has visited Malaysia no less than six times and police are investigating why. Dumont, who is of Algerian descent, is believed to have used a fake passport to come to Malaysia between 2002 and 2003. He is said to have stayed in several hotels here and rented a house for a few months in a northern state. The 34-year-old militant, who had links with Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, was arrested in Germany in December. He first entered Japan from Singapore using a forged French passport bearing the name Tinet Gerald Camille Armand...

The leader of the eight suspected terrorists who were arrested in Spain on Monday night had contact with individuals in a number of countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium. According to the Spanish news agency Europapress, the group's leader, the 30-year-old Algerian Mohammed Achrat, sent funds to various individuals. It is not known why the money was sent. Mr Achrat, who was arrested in Switzerland several days ago at the request of the Spanish authorities, is believed to be a member of the extremist Algerian group GIA.

Spanish authorities have identified the body of one of the suspected ringleaders of the Madrid train bombings using his parents' saliva. Algerian man Lamari was one of seven key suspects who blew themselves up in an apartment in order to avoid arrest. Lamari's remains are the last to be identified from the apartment in Leganes. Forensic tests on the saliva of the Algerian's parents have confirmed his identity. Lamari became a prime suspect in the March 11 bombs when his fingerprints were found on a book of Koranic verse at the Leganes apartment. Back in 1997, Lamari was arrested by...

LYON, France - France on Tuesday expelled an Algerian-born Islamic prayer leader who condoned wife beating, part of a French campaign to punish Muslim clerics preaching violence. Abdelkader Bouziane boarded an Algeria-bound flight from the southeastern city of Lyon, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin told parliament. "I salute this decision that today allows us to pursue, to expulse foreign citizens who insult or call for violence against women," he said. Bouziane, who was an imam or prayer leader in the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, was first deported to his native Algeria in April on orders from the Interior Ministry. But...

PARIS Six men suspected of a role in a foiled 2001 plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Paris will stand trial on terrorism-related charges, judicial officials said Monday. The men are charged with ‘‘criminal association with a terrorist enterprise,’’ which carries up to 10 years in prison, the officials said on customary condition of anonymity. Two are also accused of violating French immigration laws. France’s top anti-terrorist judges Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Ricard have investigated the suspects for nearly three years. The trial could begin in early 2005, the officials said. Among the suspects is French-Algerian Djamel Beghal, an...

A university student skilled in bomb-making has taken charge of Algeria's largest Islamic rebel movement but the Al-Qaeda-linked group is fighting for its survival as the army pounds its hideouts and members surrender. The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which seeks a purist Islamic state in the Maghreb, made headlines last year with the kidnapping of dozens of European tourists and reportedly secured 5 million euros ($6 million) in ransom money. After more than a decade of holy war or "jihad" resulting in the deaths of more than 150,000 people, according to human rights groups, the GSPC is...

A Syrian and an Algerian have been arrested in Spain in connection with the March 11 Madrid train bombings, the Spanish interior ministry said. Detained in the south-east coastal city of Valencia, Safwan Sabagh and Abdelkrim Beghadali, both 41, had been previously arrested in March in connection with the same investigation but released for lack of evidence. The ministry said their fingerprints were found in the apartment in the Madrid suburb of Leganes in which seven people suspected of involvement in the bombings blew themselves up as the police closed in on April 3. Their prints, and well as two...

PESHAWAR: Police in Pakistan arrested an Algerian suspected of links with al-Qaeda as he was trying to flee a security cordon near his house in the city of Peshawar on Thursday, intelligence officials said. The man, who was not identified, was wounded in the neck when police opened fire on his vehicle, an intelligence official said. "His condition is stable," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A man who fled with the Algerian escaped. He was not identified. Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terror, has launched a major crackdown on members of Osama bin...

A Spanish judge has ordered an Algerian man be remanded in custody indefinitely as part of investigations into the Madrid bombings in March which killed almost 200 people. Nasreddine Bousbaa was arrested this week and is suspected of being involved in producing fake passports for the suspected perpetrators of the March 11 train bombings. Bousbaa has admitted knowing Jamal Ahmidam, one of the suspected masterminds of the four coordinated attacks on packed commuter trains heading for Madrid, in which 191 people were killed and 1,900 wounded. Ahmidam was one of seven suspects who blew themselves up on April 3 as...

Madrid - A man was due to appear before a judge on Friday after being arrested as part of the investigations into the Madrid bombings in March in which almost 200 people died, legal sources said. The man, said to be an Algerian, was arrested late on Thursday and is suspected of being involved in producing fake passports found in a Madrid apartment. Seven people, thought to be leaders of the March attacks, died in April when they blew the apartment up as police closed in on them. A total of 191 people were killed and 1 900 wounded in...

Algeria's extremist militant group, the GSPC, has declared war on foreign people and companies in the oil-rich North African country.The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, gave their war declaration on an Islamic website today. They declare war on &NULL;everything that is foreign and atheistic within Algeria's borders. The GSPC is one of the largest militant groups in Algeria and is believed to have ties with al Qaeda. They made news headlines last year with the prolonged kidnapping of 32 western tourists, including one Dutchman, Arjan Hilbers.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police arrested five foreigners on Wednesday after carrying out their first raids in a widening probe of suspected al Qaeda activities centering on a French national who spent over a year in Japan. Police searched 10 locations following media reports last week that Lionel Dumont, who was arrested in Germany last December, was trying to build up a base in Japan to support al Qaeda among a network of foreigners in the country. Dumont, a French national of Algerian descent, is suspected of being involved in delivering equipment and funds to al Qaeda during his stay...

Al Qaeda operatives flushed out of Afghanistan and other locales have likely cast their eyes on the continent of Africa as a source for new recruits and funding, a senior U.S. military officer said March 8. "There has, without a doubt, been some al Qaeda presence in portions of North Africa," Air Force Gen. Charles F. Wald told reporters during a roundtable discussion at the State Department's Foreign Press Center here. Wald, the deputy commander for U.S. European Command, noted to reporters he'd recently returned from an 11-nation trip to Africa. EUCOM's area of responsibility extends from the North Cape...

Interview with Algerian Terror Leader Associated with Al-Qa'ida: The Islamic State Will Arise Only Through Blood and Body Parts The Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat published an interview with Nabil Sahrawi, also known as Abu Ibrahim Mustafa, a leader of the Salafi Group for Da'wa and Fighting in Algeria. This group has been linked with Al-Qa'ida. Prior to publication, the interview, which is Sahrawi's first, was posted on Islamist websites. At the beginning of the interview, Sahrawi tells about his organization, which was founded in early 1999, and states that it supplanted the Armed Islamic Group. According to Sahrawi, his group was...

HAMBURG, Germany: Italian authorities on Wednesday asked for the extradition of an Algerian man suspected of recruiting militants to carry out suicide attacks against coalition forces in Iraq, officials said. Abderrazak Mahdjoub 30, was arrested Nov. 28 in Hamburg at the request of Italian authorities, who arrested two other North African men the same day in Milan. All were charged in warrants with association with the aim of international terrorism - a charge introduced in Italy after the Sept. 11 attacks. Hamburg prosecutors have until Jan. 8 to act on the request for extradition, and are expected to make a...

An Algerian pilot falsely accused by the United States of training the September 11 hijackers is suing the US authorities. Lotfi Raissi, 29, the first person accused of participating in attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, has filed for damages against the US department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Raissi, who was detained by the British for five months following the attacks, says his life has been ruined by the trauma he was put through. He said: “I love the US. I lived and trained there and had hoped to make a life for myself...

Australia let suspect go, say French Australian authorities ignored warnings that an al-Qaeda member was tracked to Sydney in 1999 and could have been establishing terrorist cells, according to Europe's top counter-terrorism investigator. The Algerian man was detained in Sydney and questioned and incriminating material seized from his flat at the request of the judge in charge of all French terrorism investigations and prosecution, Jean-Louis Bruguiere. A French intelligence team travelled to Australia to direct his interrogation by Australian Federal Police. Despite French claims that the man was linked to a plot to launch major terrorist attacks in the United...