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'Germany faces terror threat'
04/07/2007 16:41 - (SA)
Rabat - Germany is under threat of terrorist attacks, German junior interior minister August Hanning said in Rabat on Tuesday, adding that there was no way to protect completely against the menace.
"Germany is threatened by terrorism but it is difficult to say in what way attacks will be carried out, since what distinguishes the terrorist threat is that one rarely knows what procedure will be chosen," he said.
The junior minister, who wraps up a three-day visit to Morocco on Wednesday, insisted that German authorities were "doing everything to avoid that attacks take place. But you have to be realistic. We can not ensure 100% security".
Hanning also said that Germany in recent weeks "has received warning messages about a planned threat against German soldiers, diplomats and NGOs in Afghanistan".
Germany has about 3 000 troops in Afghanistan serving under Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), most of them in the relatively calm north of the country.
In late June, German authorities said they had discovered a plot to attack Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung when he visited Afghanistan earlier in the month.
Hanning also said on Tuesday that Germany had received "open threats sent in video messages, and recently we received a message in connection with the kidnapping of German hostages in Iraq stating that Germany is a concrete target for terrorists".
There has been no word of the fate of two German nationals since they were snatched in Iraq on February 6.
'Recruiting terrorists'
As for his visit to Morocco, Hanning said he had come "to deepen the co-operation between the competent authorities in the area of security", adding that the two countries had reactivated an existing German-Moroccan work group on the subject.
Illegal immigration and terrorism had topped the agenda at his meetings in Morocco, the junior minister said, pointing out that "there are Moroccans living in Germany and we have observed that some of them are associated with terrorist groups and are involved in recruiting for attacks".
"That is why we wish to co-operate more closely with Moroccan authorities," he added.
Nearly 90 000 Moroccans live in Germany, and nearly half of them are dual citizens.
- AFP
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