WEDNESDAY,APRIL17.2002
WORLD NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 9A
Terrorism suspicions rise in Tunisian explosion case
The Associated Press
BERLIN — German prosecutors yesterday questioned and then released a man detained in connection with a truck explosion that killed 15 people at a Tunisian synagogue and said indications of a terrorist attack were growing, just as a group linked to Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility.
U. S. authorities were investigating the claim, a government official in Washington said. If verified, it would make the blast at the Ghirba synagogue on the resort island of Djerba the first terrorist attack by bin Laden's al-Qaida network since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
German officials took a suspect into custody Monday in the city of Duisburg after receiving a tip from Tunisian authorities that the suspected attacker, identified by Tunisian officials as the driver of the gas-laden truck, had spoken by phone with the suspect
hours before the blast last Thursday.
A statement from Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office said that searches of the suspect's apartment and those of several associates also turned up no compelling evidence.
The statement said: "Indications that the event of April 11 was a terror attack have strengthened further. Further intensive investigation is still needed to clear up the exact sequence of events."
German officials, including Interior Minister Otto Schily, declined to comment on a report in the news magazine Stern suggesting the man had links to alQaida. They also would not comment on whether investigators had found ties between the Djerba explosion and two terrorist cells believed to have operated in Germany.
"We can't judge that at the moment," said Gerhard Schlemmer, a federal police representative.
Five Algerians linked to al-Qaida and charged with plotting to blow up a French market went on trial Tuesday in Frankfurt. U.S. authorities have said that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were orchestrated by a terrorist cell that operated in Hamburg, Germany.
Yesterday, two London-based Arab newspapers reported responsibility claims for the Tunisian synagogue attack from a group calling itself the Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Sites—the same name used by a group that claimed the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in East Africa.
The group was believed to be the military wing of a militant coalition dominated by al-Qaida and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Tuesday's report said the group acted in retaliation for "Israeli crimes" against Palestinians.
Powell calls for quick cease-fire
JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Colin Powell is trying to expand Israel's withdrawal on the West Bank and persuade Yasser Arafat to commit to some version of a cease-fire—limited results as he concludes a mission aimed at halting 18 months of escalating violence.
The Associated Press
"I think we are making progress and are looking forward to making more progress in the next 24 hours." Powell said yesterday.
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But Israeli forces moved into a West Bank town and three villages near Jerusalem and imposed curfews as part of a high security alert timed to Israel's Independ-
Israeli officials said the withdrawal would not preclude efforts to arrest Fuad Shobaki, whom they accused of overseeing attacks on Israel and the abortive shipment of 50 tons of Iranian weapons to the Palestinians.
And, the officials said on condition of anonymity, they remained determined to arrest the plotters of the assassination last October of Tourism Minister
Powell will have a second and final session with the Palestinian leader Arafat on Wednesday at his rocket-battered Ramallah headquarters, where he's been confined by Israeli troops for nearly three weeks.
In his meeting with Arafat, and in a one-hour session yesterday with Sharon at the prime minister's home in midtown Jerusalem, Powell also was taking up the international peace conference that is quickly taking shape.
Palestinians condemned the new incursions. But Powell has tempered his public calls for a total and quick military departure now that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has announced a pullout from all but Ramallah and Bethlehem within a week.
He would like to wind up the trip with fresh assurances from Arafat to reduce violence. But Powell is falling short of the formal cease-fire he left Washington in search of 10 days ago.
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