31 March 2005

BERLIN - Top Iraqi terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi is planning to carry out chemical weapons attacks on targets in Europe, a report said on Wednesday.

"Somewhere in Europe there's going to be a big bang and it will have been organised by Zarqawi," said a German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) official, as quoted by the heavyweight political magazine Cicero.

The unnamed BND sources said it was unclear how far Zarqawi's agents had managed to develop the means for a chemical attack. "We just know that he's working on it," said an agent quoted in the story.

Chemical weapons production is being conducted by members of Zarqawi's group - closely linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network - in Georgia and in the lawless north Caucasus region of Russia, said the report.

Zarqawi is believed to have at least 150 potential terrorists based in the German city of Berlin and in Bavaria and Baden- Wuerttemberg states, said the BND agents in the Cicero report.

DPA

Subject: German news