New tape threatens attacks on Austria, Germany
VIENNA (AFP) — A new videotape on which Islamist militants threaten to attack Germany and Austria if they do not pull their troops out of Afghanistan was broadcast on Austrian television Tuesday evening.
The German and Austrian interior ministries confirmed the existence of the tape, which also demanded Austria release two people arrested over a similar threatening video issued in March.
In the video, aired by Austrian television ORF2, the militants identified themselves as the Globale Islamistische Medienfront or GIMF (Global Islamist Media Front).
Austrian interior ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said the ministry had received the video, which lasts about four minutes, several days ago and described it as "an abstract threat".
"We're taking it seriously. But it does not alter the security situation" in Austria, he said.
"We can't say where the video originated. We're in the process of analysing that with our colleagues" at the German domestic intelligence service, he added.
A German interior ministry spokesman said in Berlin that the video was "currently being evaluated by our experts. Until then, we're not saying anything about its content".
In the video, a disguised voice can be heard saying that "Germany and Austria should take the threat seriously because we are not going to let it remain a simple threat."
Like the previous video, the new one contains photos of Austrian ministers apparently downloaded from the government's website.
Several photos of soldiers in Afghanistan used in the video appear to have been copied from the Austrian defence ministry web page and from German newspaper Bild Zeitung.
ORF journalists obtained the video after having made contact online with authors of Islamist websites.
Three presumed GIMF militants were arrested in Vienna in September in connection with a similar video, also threatening to attack Austria and Germany, that had been distributed in March.
One suspect was released in mid-September, while the two main suspects, a 20-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman, remain in custody in Vienna.
The two suspects are accused of "belonging to a terrorist organisation," Austrian interior minister Guether Platter said at the time, adding that they were suspected of links to the Al-Qaeda network.
If found guilty, the pair could receive jail sentences of up to 10 years.
Nevertheless, Plattner stressed that at no time did they represent a real threat to Austria.
The two suspects live in Vienna and are second-generation Austrian Muslims of Arab origin, the security authorities said.
They were arrested in connection with a video that was broadcast on March 11 on "The Voice of the Caliphate", an online television site launched in September 2005 by the Iraqi branch of the Al-Qaeda network of the Western world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden.
Austria currently has only three staff officers in Kabul and their mission ends on December 31. Germany has some 3,000 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF).
Both have excluded pulling out their troops.
