Terror Suspect Arrested in Hamburg

The man, identified by as Abderrazak Mahdjoub, 29, an Algerian also known as “the sheikh,” was arrested on Friday morning in this northern port city on the request of Italian authorities, who are requesting he be handed over to them.

“He has been arrested on the basis of an Italian investigation and been taken into custody pending extradition,” Marion Zippel, a senior prosecutor in the Hamburg prosecutor’s office, told Reuters.

Mahdjoub is suspected of being the leader of a group of recruiters active in Europe looking for people to travel to Iraq to carry out suicide bombings. One of the recruits, according to the arrest warrant, was suspected of involvement in the rocket attack in October on a Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying.

Mahdjoub is also thought to have had contacts with the Hamburg-based terror cell which carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.

Hamburg police had arrested Mahdjoub in July on suspicion of plotting to bomb attack in Spain, but he was released several months later for lack of evidence.

The chief of Germany's foreign intelligence unit, August Hanning, described Iraq last week as a "crystallizing point" for the radical Islamist cause. He said activists were heading there from European countries to fight the U.S. occupation.

In April, police said dozens of Islamic extremists were being approached by recruiters in Italy and Germany. They were then sent to training camps in Syria before going to Iraq to join a group with links to al Qaeda.

Italian Dragnet

The arrest in Hamburg was part of a larger Italian-led anti-terror sweep carried out on Thursday and Friday. Prosecutors in Milan had issued arrest warrants for five individuals suspected of being part of the terror cell. All five were charged with association with the aim of international terrorism.

Italian police arrested two North Africans in Milan, also suspected of being members of the recruiting group. They have been identified as Housni Jamal, 20, of Morocco and Bouyahia Maher Ben Abdelaziz, 33, of Tunisia.

Two others -- an Iraqi man and a Tunisian woman -- remain at large, the Interior Ministry in Rome told the Associated Press. The Iraqi is suspected of having fled to Syria while the woman is thought to have returned to her home country.

The ministry confirmed earlier reports that a sixth man, a Tunisian national, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly providing assistance to the terror cell.

Since suicide bombers killed 19 Italians in southern Iraq earlier this month, Italy has cracked down on people suspected of having links to terror networks. Rome recently expelled seven North Africans accused of having links with militant groups and an imam from Senegal who publicly expressed support for Osama bin Laden.