DAR AL HARB - GERMANY: IRAQI FINANCING OF JIHAD

Germany charges Iraqi with supporting radical Islamic group Ansar al-Islam

BERLIN: An Iraqi man has been charged in Germany with transferring money to his home country to finance the radical Islamic group Ansar al-Islam, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The 37-year-old, identified only as Burhan B., was charged Jan. 12 with membership of a terrorist organization and violating foreign trade laws.

He was arrested last June at Frankfurt airport and has been held since in investigative custody.

Prosecutors said he was in contact with Ata Abdoulaziz Rashid, who is accused of playing a central role in Ansar al-Islam's European network. Rashid is one of three Iraqis currently on trial on charges they plotted to kill former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi when he visited Berlin in 2004.

Burhan B., prosecutors said, made at least three transfers totaling €22,000 (US$28,500) to Ansar al-Islam in Iraq on Rashid's behalf to finance "violent jihad," prosecutors said. The transfers were made between November 2003 and May 2004.

"Through these money transfers he supported terrorist activities and at the same time violated foreign trade and payment laws," the prosecutors said in a statement.

Ansar al-Islam, which was formed in the Kurdish parts of Iraq, is believed to include former al-Qaida members who fled the U.S.-led ouster of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers.

The organization and its successor, Ansar al-Sunna, are suspected of a string of deadly attacks on U.S. troops and Iraqi police as well as foreign embassies, international organizations and rival Iraqi groups.

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