BERLIN, March 15 (UPI) -- While no concrete attack plans are known to the authorities, the current terror threat in Germany is the highest in years.
Terrorist experts of the German Federal Criminal Office, or BKA, have advised the German government to raise the threat level, the Financial Times Germany newspaper reported Thursday, without citing sources.
The terror threat in Germany a few months ago was considered to be much lower than in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel. "According to the top police agency, that gap has dramatically closed," the newspaper wrote.
The BKA believes that a video which surfaced on an extremist Web site last weekend, warning Germany and neighboring Austria of terror attacks if they didn't pull out their troops from Afghanistan, is a direct threat from al-Qaida.
A masked man read out a statement in Arabic with English subtitles: "Germany's participation in the U.S. war on Islam and Muslims will lead only to endangering Germany itself."
As to Austria, he said: "Do not destroy the security of a whole country for the sake of five soldiers you have sent to Afghanistan ... Decide quickly and withdraw your soldiers." Austria has a total of five troops there.
With the flags of Germany and Austria displayed in front of a burning background, the man added: "In standing by the United States, you have provoked those whom you call terrorists to target you."
According to BKA investigations, one of the men is believed to be a student, likely from Austria, the newspaper said. The BKA experts are alarmed; before the Madrid train bombings nearly three years ago, Spain was warned as well in a video message.
Bavaria's Interior Minister Guenther Beckstein, of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, has asked the state's universities to report suspicious students. The move is sure to draw much criticism.
