Islamic militants jailed over German 'September 11' plot

A German court yesterday jailed four Islamic militants who dreamed of "mounting a second September 11" for a thwarted plot to attack US soldiers and civilians in Germany.

Sentencing the four - who included two German converts to Islam - to between five and 12 years, judge Ottmar Breidling said they planned to stage a "monstrous bloodbath" with car bombings in German cities.

In what judge Breidling called the biggest terror plot in German post-war history, the four were convicted in a high-security courtroom in Duesseldorf after a more than 10-month trial.

The two German converts to Islam, Fritz Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider, each received 12-year jail terms.

Adem Yilmaz, a Turkish citizen, got 11 years while Atilla Selek, a German of Turkish origin, was given five years in prison for what the court called a supporting role in the plot.

The judges stopped short of handing down the maximum 15 years because the defendants had confessed. The bearded men sat impassively as the sentences were read out.

Judge Breidling said the militants, now aged 24 to 31, had schemed to carry out "an extraordinarily dangerous and sweeping attack plot" with visions of "mounting a second September 11, 2001".

"If the accused had managed to do what they planned, it would have led to a monstrous bloodbath, primarily among US army personnel and also civilians," he said.

"Apparently a not even rudimentary knowledge of Islam is enough for such blind extremists to turn themselves into angels of death in the name of Islam."

Proposed targets included pubs and nightclubs in several German cities frequented by Americans but also US airbases and diplomatic facilities.

Judge Breidling said there were now in Europe "many impressionable young men and men who have already been led astray, ready to kill for notions of Jihad."

The so-called Sauerland cell, named after the region where three were captured in September 2007, admitted to belonging to a "terrorist organisation", plotting murder and conspiring for an explosives attack.

They aimed to kill Americans, but also punish Germany for its military involvement in Afghanistan, judge Breidling said.

Authorities said they captured the men just in time, as they were planning attacks before October 12, 2007, when Parliament was to vote to extend German participation in the Nato force in Afghanistan.

After the biggest criminal surveillance operation in post-war history, police using US and German intelligence caught three of the suspects red-handed, mixing chemicals to make some 410 kilograms of explosives.

This was 100 times the amount used in the 2005 London bombings that killed more than 50 people, prosecutors said.

The fourth suspect, Selek, was arrested soon after in Turkey.