New message claims Dortmund bus attack
South Balkans boost security
BERLIN, April 15, (AFP): German prosecutors are examining a third claim of responsibility for blasts that rocked Borussia Dortmund’s team bus, it was reported Saturday, but no new suspects have emerged.
With Dortmund players due back on the pitch in the Bundesliga, police are pursuing leads regarding the attack on Tuesday that injured Spanish international Marc Bartra and a policeman.
Three bombs containing pieces of metal detonated minutes after the bus left the team’s hotel for a Champions League match against Monaco.
The Tagesspiegel newspaper revealed it had received a new claim, apparently from far-right circles, railing against multi-culturalism, saying it had been behind the triple blast and threatening another attack.
“We have the letter claiming responsibility. We are examining it,” said Frauke Koehler, spokeswoman for federal prosecutors, referring to the email received by Tagesspiegel.
Several such claims have already been investigated without any breakthrough.
Three identical letters found close to the site had initially suggested an Islamist link, but questions have arisen about the authenticity of that claim.
A sole suspect — an Iraqi man — taken into custody over the Islamist link has since been cleared of involvement and a second claim, purporting to be from the far-left, was made online, but prosecutors had cast doubt on it early on.
Badly shaken by the attack, Dortmund nevertheless played their delayed first leg quarter-final match against Monaco on Wednesday, losing 3-2 to the French club.
The team is gearing up to host Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga on Saturday, when six other league games are also to be played under heightened security.
Dortmund urged fans to turn up early due to security checks, and asked them to avoid bringing bags or backpacks.
Bartra
South Balkans boosts measures:
Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia on Friday boosted security measures to prevent terror acts, notably at places of worship over Easter weekend.
In Kosovo, an official who asked not to be named confirmed to AFP local media reports on the arrest of a man suspected of planning an attack.
The authorities were searching for three other people, the official said.
The four are linked to Lavdrim Muhaxhiri, one of the main recruiters and a leading figure for jihadists from the Balkans going to fight in Syria and Iraq, he added.
Muhaxhiri, known also as Abu Abdullah al Kosova, appears on several jihadist propaganda videos, and one he can been seen killing a prisoner.
Stockholm suspect had ties to IS:
Uzbekistan said Friday the suspect in last week’s deadly Stockholm truck attack had ties to Islamic State jihadists and the West had been warned about him.
Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old Uzbek national, is in custody on suspicion of mowing down a crowd on a busy street in the Swedish capital, killing four people.
Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said Akilov was radicalised after moving to Sweden in 2014 and the Central Asian nation’s intelligence service had passed on information about him.