EUROPE’S most wanted Syrian terrorist has finally been arrested in a German city after a 48-hour manhunt.
Jaber al-Bakr, who posed as a Syrian refugee, was caught by police in Leipzig, eastern Germany, after a massive search operation over the weekend.The 22-year-old was found tied up and immobilized in the flat of a fellow Syrian in the early hours of Monday morning. Al-Bakr phoned who he assumed was an accomplice from the main railway station in the city, in the Paunsdorf area, and told him he needed a safe place to stay. But the host subdued him upon arrival, tied him up and phoned police who burst into the flat around 12.40am.
Police suspect Bakrhad has strong links to barbaric group the Islamic State, or Isis.Al-Bakr had been on the run since a kilo of explosives were discovered at his house in the Chemnitz during a raid on Saturday.He managed to flee a house around 7am, despite it being under police watch. Officers were getting ready to storm the flat when Bakr escaped, and fired a warning shot at him but he was able to get away.
A second flat in Chemnitz was also raided, with heavily armed officers from the specialist SEK unit hurling stun grenades into the building before arresting a suspected accomplice of Bakr. A woman and child who were inside the apartment at the time were treated for shock. Elsewhere in the city three other men suspected of helping Bakr plot a bomb attack at a regional airport were seized in the Saturday raids. The foiled plot is thought to have targeted Dresden or Leipzig airports.
