Al Qaeda has drawn up plans to attack Europe's economy, according to a German magazine report Wednesday quoting documents seized by US troops from the late Osama bin Laden's Pakistan hide-out. Stern magazine said it had obtained the information from security sources, and that Germany was named among the possible targets.
The country's main anti-terrorist agency, the Federal Crime Office in Wiesbaden, confirmed to the German Press Agency dpa that such a captured document existed, but said it made no mention of concrete targets. In the brief report on its website, Stern did not specify what was meant by "the economy."
"In the data that US elite soldiers seized on May 2 in Osama bin Laden's place, there was a strategy concept for an attack on Europe's economy," it said. The document was allegedly seized in the home in Abbottabad where bin Laden was killed. Stern said its author was believed to be Sheikh Younis al-Mauretani, a member of al Qaeda's top leadership.
Stern said its discovery tended to confirm intelligence obtained last autumn from two captured German Islamists, Rami M and Ahmad S. In November 2011, Germany was put on alert. Stern said this was because the two men had said al-Mauretani was plotting an attack. The Federal Crime Office declined to confirm to dpa what the reason for the alert was. Germany continued to be a potential target and the risk was high, a Crime Office spokeswoman said.