Tunisian Blast Shows Ties To Germany

Sixteen people, including 10 Germans, were killed in the explosion of a tanker truck filled with cooking gas outside North Africa's oldest synagogue site on the resort island of Djerba last Thursday. German Federal Prosecutors have now taken charge of the German side of the investigation.

Although the Tunisian authorities quickly stated that the blast was an accident, the German government said there is a growing suspicion that it was a deliberate attack. "We have knowledge that reinforces this belief," said Interior Minister Otto Schily. There is, however, no firm evidence yet to support this claim.

Survivors returning to Germany over the weekend said they too believed the blast was no accident. "A man got out shortly before and ran away," said one witness. "He must have been the attacker."

Schily added that the explosion was probably aimed at the synagogue and not at the tourists. He said that the investigation was far from being completed.

Criticism of Tunisian investigators

Three specialists from Germany's criminal investigation office are in Djerba to help with the investigation. Although they have no official authorization, the Tunisian authorities are reportedly providing them with information.

But Schily (photo) is critical of the Tunisian methods. He has wondered aloud why they began repairing the synagogue immediately after the blast.

"Whether it was really sensible immediately to carry out repair work is something we must place under a huge question mark," Schily told German television ZDF.

Ties to al Qaeda?

German authorities on Tuesday arrested a man in Duisburg believed to have had contact with the man who crashed the truck shortly before the explosion.

A spokeswoman from the prosecutor's office said German security authorities monitored a telephone call from Djerba to Germany just before the explosion.

The German magazine Stern said authorities believe the person called in Germany has links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. An Arabic-language newspaper published in London said it had received a letter claiming that al Qaeda was behind the blast. The al-Quds al-Arabi paper reported that a Tunisian man has claimed he did it to avenge what he called Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder stressed that the developments showed the ongoing necessity of the war against terrorism. "It would be a serious mistake for anyone to believe that the campaign against international terrorism is now drawing to a close," he said.

Whatever the outcome of the investigation, the stakes are high for Tunisia. The country is heavily dependent on revenue from tourism and visited by a million Germans a year. It is Africa's top destination after South Africa.