German Police Arrest Two Al Qaeda Suspects

German police arrested two suspected Al Qaeda members Sunday, accusing them of planning attacks in Iraq and trying to purchase uranium from a dealer in Luxembourg.

The men were identified as Ibrahim Mohammed K., a 29-year-old Iraqi, and Yasser abu S., a 31-year-old Palestinian from Libya. Prosecutors said the two planned to pretend that Abu S. had been killed in a car accident, then claim more than $1 million from a life insurance policy to fund a suicide bombing and other operations in Iraq.

At a news conference in Karlsruhe, federal prosecutor Kay Nehm also said the Iraqi had sought to acquire nuclear material for use in an attack. He had contact with a group in Luxembourg that possessed uranium, but Nehm said it was unsuitable for a bomb.

Prosecutors said the Iraqi had visited Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and remained there for a year afterward, fighting U.S.-led forces.

In Afghanistan, the Iraqi was in regular contact with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as well as Ramzi Binalshibh, allegedly a key planner of the Sept. 11 hijackings who had been living in Germany and was captured in Pakistan, prosecutors said.

The men were arrested in the western city of Mainz, the site of a planned stop by President Bush during his trip to Europe next month.

German law enforcement officials said there was no sign that the men had plotted anything in connection with Bush’s visit or planned to target sites in Europe.

Both men are to be brought before a judge at the Federal Supreme Court of Justice in Karlsruhe today.