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AUSTRIA-GERMANY-ATTACKS-RAIL-LEAD
Austria arrests Iraqi over 2018 Germany rail sabotage
VIENNA, March 27, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Austria has arrested an Iraqi suspected
of committing “terrorist attacks” by sabotaging railway lines in Germany last
year, prosecutors said Wednesday.
They said the 42-year-old man is suspected, along with others, of having
strung a steel rope across the tracks between the southern German cities of
Munich and Nuremberg, damaging the front window of a train in October last
year.
In another case in December last year, cement blocks were put on the
tracks, but there was no damage or casualties. Islamic State (IS) flags and
writings in Arabic were found near the crime scenes, according to Vienna
prosecutors.
They said the group’s aim had been to derail trains.
The man was arrested on Monday “under suspicion to have carried out
terrorist attacks on railways in Germany in October and December 2018.”
Austrian and German authorities worked together in their investigations
leading to Monday’s arrest, according to a press release by criminal
investigators in Germany’s southern state of Bavaria.
Austrian media reported the father of five was working at a security
company with access to football stadiums.
Germany is on alert following several jihadist attacks in recent years.
The most deadly was committed in 2016 by 23-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri,
who killed 12 people when he stole a truck and ploughed it through a Berlin
Christmas market.
BSS/AFP/RY/1645 hrs