German bomb suspect may have al Qaeda link

A man held in Lebanon in connection with a failed attack on German trains has confessed to planting a suitcase bomb and investigations suggest he might have links to al Qaeda, the Lebanese government said yesterday.

"When he saw the pictures, he admitted that he planted the bomb," Lebanon's acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat told Reuters television.

"There is nothing clear now, but in his computer, we found something that can be related to al Qaeda, some contacts. He denied any contact till now with al Qaeda, but maybe he was working without knowing (it) himself under the umbrella of al Qaeda," he added.

Mr Fatfat was referring to Jihad Hamad, a 20-year-old Lebanese man who turned himself in to authorities in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Thursday. Hamad and a 21-year-old Lebanese man named Youssef Mohamad E. H., who was arrested in Germany at the weekend, were caught on security videos dragging suitcases onto trains in Cologne last month. Suitcases like those in the footage were found packed with propane gas tanks and crude detonating devices on trains in Dortmund and Koblenz. The explosives failed to detonate.