Letter found after German bus attack demands pullback in Syria

BERLIN — A letter that was found after explosions damaged the team bus of one of Germany’s premier soccer teams called for the country to scale back its involvement in the Western military coalition in Syria, authorities said Wednesday.

Frauke Koehler, a spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office of Germany, also said two people with an “Islamist background” had been taken into custody after an attack on the Borussia Dortmund bus Tuesday evening when the team was traveling to its stadium for a Champions League match against AS Monaco.

The game was postponed and kicked off Wednesday at a packed stadium in Dortmund under tightened security.

Koehler said the letter demanded Germany withdraw its Tornado aircraft from the campaign in Syria, where they are used for reconnaissance and where the Islamic State group is under attack from a multinational coalition trying to push it from its strongholds.

The letter also demanded what it termed “the closure of the Ramstein air base,” Koehler said, a reference to the main airport for U.S. and NATO military forces in Germany.

The unusually specific set of demands came with no claim of responsibility, but it was being examined by experts, Koehler said. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has taken charge of the investigation.

She provided no detail about the two people who had been taken into custody beyond saying they were “from the Islamist spectrum.”