Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY

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WORLD NEWS Thursday 1 december 2016

German spy agency BfV finds it Syrians fleeing battles in Aleppo shelled
hired an Islamic extremist mole
cused the rebels of open-
DAVID RISING ing fire on the civilians as
Associated Press they tried to flee eastern
BERLIN (AP) — On one side of the internet chat was Aleppo.
an Islamic extremist who had just got himself a job The bodies of the victims
with Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. On the of the Jub al-Quba at-
other side was an agent of Germany’s domestic intel- tack Wednesday lined
ligence agency pretending to be an Islamic extremist. the streets, as their bags
When the 51-year-old mole, a German who had con- and few belongings lied
verted to Islam, offered to use his new job to provide in- close by their sides, photos
formation to “help the brothers” plan an attack against showed.
his employer, German law enforcement swooped in. Jawad al-Rifai, who took
It appears little harm was done to the intelligence the pictures for the Aleppo
agency, known by its German acronym BfV, Duessel- Media Center, said they
dorf prosecutors said Wednesday. were civilians — mostly
“So far, there have been no reliable indications that Civil Defense workers carry a victim on a stretcher after artillery women and children —
the accused had already given security-relevant in- fire struck the Jub al-Quba district in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, fleeing shelling and air
formation to people from the violent Salafist scene,” Nov. 30, 2016. Syrian activists say at least 26 people have been strikes on other parts of the
prosecutor Ralf Herrenbrueck, whose office is leading killed in an artillery barrage on a housing area for those dis- city. “They were fleeing on
the investigation, told The Associated Press in a written placed in rebel-held eastern Aleppo. foot. They were coming to
response to questions. (Syrian CDWH via AP) our side,” said Ibrahim Al-
The suspect, whose identity has not been released, is PHILIP ISSA fighters clashed heavily on Haj, a member of the Syri-
now in custody and has partially confessed to investi- SARAH EL DEEB the southern edge of the an Civil Defense teams, ex-
gators, Herrenbrueck said. He told questioners that his Associated Press enclave with government- plaining that the displaced
goal was to infiltrate the BfV to warn his “brothers in BEIRUT (AP) — A series of allied troops, who made were heading to what they
faith” of operations against them. artillery rounds lobbed new gains in the govern- thought was safer ground.
The suspect is under investigation on suspicion of pre- Wednesday on Syria’s east- ment offensive that has “There were children, baby
paring an act of violence against the state and of ern Aleppo district killed 26 cleaved the rebel-held bottles and bags all over.”
an attempted violation of state secrets regulations, civilians, including seven part of the city. The neighborhood and
among other charges. children, as they fled a gov- The Syrian government others around it in Aleppo’s
The man, described by German media as a former ernment ground offensive pushed its way into the centrally-located old city
bank employee who was married with children, start- in the besieged enclave. 45-square kilometer (17 have absorbed thousands
ed with the BfV in April and was tasked with the surveil- It was the second time the square miles) rebel-held of residents displaced by
lance of Salafists, adherents of an ultra-conservative Jub al-Quba neighbor- enclave over the week- the advance of govern-
form of Islam that can also turn violent, Herrenbrueck hood, in the historic district end, making its first territo- ment troops in the east.
said. There are an estimated 9,200 Salafists in Germany. of the rebel-held eastern rial gain in the area seized Abdulkafi Alhamdo, a
The BfV said it had uncovered no red flags in the hiring side of the city, was struck by the opposition fighters teacher living in the Zaba-
or the interviewing process. in as many days. since 2012. dieh neighborhood in east-
“The worker, who started not long ago, had been in- An airstrike Tuesday Government officials say ern Aleppo, said refugees
conspicuous during the application process, training blamed by activists on the they want to “liberate” the were filling up his building,
and at work,” the agency told the AP. government killed 25 civil- area, calling the opposition most of its flats abandoned
The agency said once it had uncovered the man, who ians in the same area. They fighters “terrorists”, and ac- because of the war. They
had used a pseudonym online, it turned the case over were also believed to be cusing them of holding ci- had close to nothing, he
to Duesseldorf prosecutors. newly displaced from the vilians there hostage. said, and have asked for
“So far there is no indication that there is a concrete government onslaught on Despite opening a number the simplest things, includ-
danger for the security of the BfV or its employees,” the the northern parts of east- of passageways to allow ing salt.
agency said. ern Aleppo. civilians to leave before “They knock on my door
Interior Ministry spokesman Tobias Plate, whose ministry Meanwhile, eight civilians, the offensive, none of the all the time. They ask for a
oversees the agency, said he couldn’t recall any com- including two children, residents took advantage plate, or some sheets,” Al-
parable cases in the recent past and said that there were killed in shelling on the of it, citing fears of being hamdo said.
were “no indications that there are fundamental struc- government-held western arrested or forcibly con- The Britain-based Syrian
tural problems” at the BfV. side of the city, according scripted. The passageways Observatory for Human
Plate said authorities will have to see whether there to state media. The gov- were not U.N. supervised. Rights, which monitors the
are lessons to be learned from the case about recruit- ernment blamed rebels for In New York on Wednes- war in Syria through a net-
ment procedures but said “it’s too early to derive any the attack. day, Syria’s U.N. Ambas- work of local contacts, said
concrete recommendations.”q The embattled opposition sador Bashar Ja’afari ac- tens more were wounded
in Jub al-Quba. q