German-Iraqi boy’s ‘bomb bid’ investigated

BERLIN // German prosecutors are investigating a 12-year-old boy’s alleged attempt to detonate a home-made nail bomb at a Christmas market.

The device – a glass jar filled with combustible powder and nails – was found on December 5 in the western city of Ludwigshafen and destroyed by a police bomb squad. The German federal prosecution service, which handles terrorism cases, yesterday confirmed “that we have started an investigation based on the discovery of a nail bomb in Ludwigshafen”.

Prosecutor Hubert Stroeber said, however, that it was an exaggeration to call the device a bomb. Although the powder was combustible, it was unclear whether it would have exploded, he said. Weekly news magazine Focus broke news of the case, saying a German- Iraqi child had plotted the attack, possi- bly after being radicalised by ISIL. Citing unnamed judicial and security sources, it said the boy was thought to have been “strongly religiously radicalised” and possibly received instructions from an unknown ISIL member.

The report said the boy first tried to detonate the device at the city’s Christmas market on November 26.

Then, on December 5, he allegedly hid the explosive with a detonator in a backpack in bushes near the city’s town hall, where a passer-by spotted it and informed police.

The boy, who is too young to face court, was detained and placed into a juvenile care facility, Focus said. A spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel described the case as “frightening” but declined to comment further, saying that the matter was in the hands of prosecutors.