Italy, Germany Arrest 3 Men Linked to Al Qaeda

ROME —  Police in Italy and Germany arrested three North African men Wednesday in an Italian-led crackdown on a militant Algerian group linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network.

None of the three suspects--nor two others still being sought--is accused of involvement in last month’s terrorist attacks on the United States. But they have been charged with working to recruit Islamic militants for training camps in Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda has taught bomb-making, sabotage, kidnapping and hijacking.

Al Qaeda is suspected in the Sept. 11 suicide missions that crashed hijacked airplanes into the Pentagon, the World Trade Center and a field in Pennsylvania.

Since then, law enforcement authorities seeking to reduce the chances of terrorist attacks in Europe have rounded up dozens of suspected Islamic militants who had been under police surveillance.

Those arrested Wednesday are accused of helping Al Qaeda recruit Islamic militants in Europe who would train in Afghan camps then return as “holy warriors” against the West.

The most prominent suspect is Lased ben Henin, a 32-year-old Libyan identified as a leader of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat. The Salafists are an offshoot of the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, which has joined Bin Laden’s anti-Western crusade.

Police arrested Ben Henin near his home in Munich, Germany, within hours of receiving an Italian warrant. The warrant said he possessed “special knowledge of explosives” and had spoken by telephone to Bin Laden several times in March and April.

Two Tunisians also said to belong to the Salafist Group were charged in Milan, Italy, on the same warrant. One, Mohammed ben Aouadi, was arrested as he left a mosque; the other, Riadh Jelassi, was served the warrant in a jail cell where he is being held on charges of receiving stolen cars.

All three were charged with criminal association to obtain and transport arms and explosives and with supplying false passports to “guerrilla candidates” bound for Afghan camps.

Italian police said they were seeking two other suspects on the same warrant, issued by Milan prosecutor Stefano Dambruoso. They were not identified.

Dambruoso’s investigation, more than a year old, has produced evidence of cooperation among Al Qaeda-linked cells in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Belgium. Wednesday’s arrests followed those of five North Africans here in April on charges of recruiting militants for Al Qaeda camps.

Italian Interior Minister Claudio Scajola said the arrests in April and on Wednesday were “extremely important” steps toward dismantling Bin Laden’s logistics and recruitment base in Italy.

Egyptian authorities, meanwhile, disclosed that they had broken up an Al Qaeda cell in May and foiled a terrorist plot targeting Americans in Egypt.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry confirmed a forthcoming report in the Cairo magazine Al Mussawar that Egypt’s security forces had uncovered an Al Qaeda cell of “sleeper agents” before they could carry out a “huge operation in Egypt with diverse and serious [American] targets.” The article did not specify the group’s size or targets.

Two arrested members of the cell, the magazine reported, attended the same pilot schools where Mohamed Atta learned to fly. U.S. investigators believe that Atta, an Egyptian, was at the controls of the first of two hijacked jets that hit the World Trade Center.

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Times staff writers Carol J. Williams in Hamburg, Germany, and Jeffrey Gettleman in Cairo contributed to this report.