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Hijacking suspect sought al Qaeda release, police sayBremen security chief: 'The crime has a radical Islamic motive'
HILDESHEIM, Germany (CNN) -- A 17-year-old Lebanese who hijacked a passenger bus Friday and led police on a chase on the autobahn demanded the release of four al Qaeda operatives and, in a letter to his parents, praised the September 11, 2001, hijackers, authorities said. The hijacking ordeal ended near Hanover after nearly seven hours, with the suspect surrendering to commandos. Not a shot being fired. The bus with 16 people aboard had been hijacked in Bremen and ended up about 90 miles to the south. Authorities said the suspect commandeered the bus using a starter's pistol and said he was carrying a bag packed with explosives. "The crime has a radical Islamic motive," said Kuno Boese, Bremen's top security official. Prosecutor Uwe Picard said the suspect demanded the release of four al Qaeda operatives, including Ramzi Binalshibh, a leader of the Hamburg terror cell who is accused of helping coordinate the September 11 attacks. Binalshibh was captured in Pakistan last year and is in U.S. custody. Authorities said there is no immediate indication that the suspect, who has lived in Germany for several years, belongs to a terrorist organization. They said he was not previously known to law enforcement. Picard said the teen's parents told authorities after their son did not come home Thursday, saying that they believed he wanted to "join the fight against Israel." "This boy had only nonsense in his head," Picard quoted the parents as saying. Boese told reporters the teenage suspect praised the September 11 hijackers in a letter left to his parents. In it, he said he wanted to go to the Middle East to fight Israel. The Munich-based newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the letter also demanded the release of the four al Qaeda members and said he would pick them up with the bus in Munich. "Should I not accomplish this mission, then lay a big part of Hanover in rubble and ashes," the newspaper quoted the letter as saying. The letter also said the teen was armed with a chemical bomb, the newspaper said. "When the bomb goes off, then is an area of 2 kilometers chemically contaminated," the letter said, according to Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Picard said the hijacker had a bag with wires sticking out and four bottles containing a liquid, but the material did not blow up when explosives experts tried to detonate it. Authorities were alerted to the hijacking about 9:30 a.m. [4:30 a.m. EDT], when the bus driver radioed a distress call to police. There were 16 people aboard the white and red, single-level bus when it was hijacked. The hijacker sat behind the driver and kept his gun pointed at him. He let off several hostages at various points, including one who complained of heart problems. The hijacker forced the bus onto the autobahn, and police vehicles chased it along the highway. A couple of hours later, the bus came to a stop in Hildesheim, about 90 miles [144 kilometers] from Bremen, and was ringed by special deployment forces who respond to hijacking situations. Negotiations then began, with the suspect demanding water, a new cell phone, and a new bus driver. Authorities also said he demanded to speak with the mayor of Bremen, who is known for his humanitarian activities. Nine hostages were released after the bus stopped on the autobahn. The incident came about two weeks after a suspected bank robber hijacked a bus in Berlin. In that ordeal, police stormed the bus and shot the hijacker in the shoulder. No hostages were wounded. (Full story) -- CNN Berlin bureau chief Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report.
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