BERLIN, April 6 (UPI) -- New details have surfaced about last year's failed terrorist attempt to blow up two commuter trains in Germany.
Previously it was thought two independent Lebanese students living in Germany had drawn up an isolated plot; German news magazine Der Spiegel said in a statement it will publish a report in its new issue that the July 31, 2005, bombing, which failed because the two self-made explosive sets didn't ignite, was an "initiation test" for an al-Qaida-linked figure and more terrorist activities to come.
The two students, Jihad Hamad, whose trial opens in Lebanon next week, and Youssef al-Hajdib, who is in a German prison, had wanted to fight in Iraq and had contacts with Khaled Ibrahim al-Hajdib, the Sweden-based brother of one of the accused. Swedish authorities believe the man does al-Qaida fundraising and recruiting in Europe, Der Spiegel said, and the Germans suspect he was the one who commissioned the attacks.
