Associated Press
BERLIN — Investigators have found evidence suggesting links between a deadly explosion at a Tunisia synagogue and Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network, a German television station said Saturday.
If al-Qaida operatives are confirmed to be behind the blast, it would be the network’s first completed terror attack since Sept. 11.
Tunisian investigators searching the home of a suspected attacker found bomb-making instructions and souvenirs brought back from the suspect’s stay in an Afghanistan training camp, according to a statement by the SWR channel summarizing Monday’s scheduled broadcast.
Police also found a satellite telephone of a type used by al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan, the report said, citing unidentified German security officials.
The phone was used for an April 11 call with someone in Pakistan, the same day a gas-laden truck exploded outside the 2,000-year-old Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian resort island of Djerba, killing 19 people, the statement said. Fourteen of the victims were German tourists.
Germany has said it is certain the explosion was a deliberate attack, possibly carried out by al-Qaida members. The Tunisian government initially maintained the explosion was accidental, but then acknowledged April 22 it was "a premeditated criminal act."
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