from "Bavarian Cueneyt Ciftci is Germany's first suicide bomber," Roger Boyes, The Times
A clerical worker was named yesterday as Germany's first suicide bomber and blamed for the deaths of two American soldiers in Afghanistan.
Cueneyt Ciftci, 28, who was born in Bavaria to a family of Turkish immigrants, is believed to have driven a pick-up truck laden with explosives into a US guard post on March 3.
An Uzbek terror group, the Islamic Jihadist Union (IJU), claimed responsibility. In the chaotic aftermath of the explosion, insurgents raked the Americans with gunfire and killed 60 men, the group claimed, adding that: “He was a brave Turk who came from Germany and exchanged his life of luxury for paradise.”
The US denied the hugely inflated casualty figure. For a week or so both the Germans and the Americans discounted the claims that the bomber was Ciftci.
But then a video clip of the Bavarian, clearly recognisable to his neighbours, turned up. It showed the bearded, smiling man brandishing a pistol and pointing one finger as if to Heaven. German police are tracing his position in a network that seems to lead back to radical Bavarian mosques and to a group arrested last September for preparing explosives to bomb Frankfurt airport. (more)
A clerical worker was named yesterday as Germany's first suicide bomber and blamed for the deaths of two American soldiers in Afghanistan.Cueneyt Ciftci, 28, who was born in Bavaria to a family of Turkish immigrants, is believed to have driven a pick-up truck laden with explosives into a US guard post on March 3.
An Uzbek terror group, the Islamic Jihadist Union (IJU), claimed responsibility. In the chaotic aftermath of the explosion, insurgents raked the Americans with gunfire and killed 60 men, the group claimed, adding that: “He was a brave Turk who came from Germany and exchanged his life of luxury for paradise.”
The US denied the hugely inflated casualty figure. For a week or so both the Germans and the Americans discounted the claims that the bomber was Ciftci.
But then a video clip of the Bavarian, clearly recognisable to his neighbours, turned up. It showed the bearded, smiling man brandishing a pistol and pointing one finger as if to Heaven. German police are tracing his position in a network that seems to lead back to radical Bavarian mosques and to a group arrested last September for preparing explosives to bomb Frankfurt airport. (more)
