September 20, 2008	Saturday	Ramazan 19, 1429

BERLIN, Sept 19: A German and a Turkish citizen have been arrested on suspicion of collaborating with a terrorist group whose plans for attacks on US targets in Germany were foiled last year, authorities said on Friday.

Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the pair, both 27 years old, were arrested on Thursday in the Frankfurt area on suspicion of links to Islamic Jihad Union, an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a jihadist group with ties to Al Qaeda.

Prosecutors identified the two as Omid S., a German citizen of Afghan descent who is suspected of membership in a terror organisation, and Hueseyin O., a Turkish citizen suspected of supporting a terror organisation. Both are suspected of involvement with the Islamic Jihad Union’s German cell.

According to the US State Department, the Islamic Jihad Union was responsible for coordinated bombings outside the US and Israeli embassies in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, in July 2004.

Prosecutors said they believe both suspects were aware of the German cell’s plot to target US and German interests a plot thwarted by authorities in September 2007. Three suspected members of the cell were arrested then and charged earlier this month. During that arrest, prosecutors said they confiscated a mobile phone that contained information on both Omid S.’ and Hueseyin O.’s bank accounts that led them to the pair.

They said Omid. S. had “travelled to an Islamic Jihad Union training camp near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the spring and summer of 2007, where he completed a course”. He is also suspected of purchasing equipment for the Islamic Jihad Union and bringing it to the group in Pakistan.—AP