Fundamentalist group denies links to bombers 01/09/2006 00:00

1 Septermber 2006

BEIRUT - The Sunni fundamentalist Hizb al-Tahrir party denied Thursday having any links with the Lebanese suspects arrested in Lebanon and Germany in connection with the failed bid to blow up two passenger trains in western Germany in late July.

"Some media reports indicated that there might be links between our party and one of the men arrested in connection with the investigations regarding the bombing attempt which was discovered in Germany," a statement by the group said.

"Such a report is false ... our party is a political, intellectual party and never resorted to any armed actions," the statement added.

The aim of al-Tahrir is to unite all Muslims in a single pan- Islamic state or caliphate, which would be ruled by a caliph.

The group "professes non-violence and calls for the return in Muslim majority countries to the Caliphate which oversaw the so- called golden age of Islam before European imperialism colonised the Middle East."

Three Lebanese men were arrested in Lebanon and two others in Germany in connection with the failed bid to blow up two passenger trains in western Germany on July 31. The bombs failed to go off.

According to a Lebanese judicial source, German investigators in Lebanon are being briefed daily on the outcome of the questioning of the three suspects.

"The investigation is focusing on who those suspects take orders from," the source said.

DPA

Subject: German news