Intelligence

Iraq becoming a breeding ground for al-Qaeda: Germany`s Hanning

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Berlin, Jan 27, IRNA -- The head of Germany`s Federal Intelligence 
Agency has warned that Iraq was on the best way of becoming the 
breeding ground for al-Qaeda terrorists, press reports said Tuesday. 
"The backbone of the organisation is not broken," August Hanning 
said Monday at a security speech in Berlin cited by an online report 
of the Spiegel magazine. 
"The network of Osama bin Laden is taking advantage of the anti-US
sentiments as an occupation force" in Iraq, Hanning said, adding that 
the terror organisation was "regenerating" itself and was merely 
"weakened" through the destruction of its training camps in 
Afghanistan. 
According to the Germany intelligence chief, the arrest of Osama 
bin Laden is of "pivotal importance" as is its "symbolic" message to 
the terror organisation. 
"Otherwise, the struggle will not be won," Hanning warned. 
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