Shabab suspects detained in Frankfurt

Germany's Federal Prosecutions Office announced on Sunday that the two suspects were arrested on arrival at Frankfurt airport on Saturday. Kenyan authorities had captured them in August.

On Sunday, they appeared before Germany's top Federal Court of Justice and were remanded in custody on charges of participating as members of al-Shabab, which is classified as a terrorist organization, the Karlsruhe-based office said.

The prosecutors identified the pair as the 30-year-old German-Tunisian Mounir T. and 22-year-old Abdiwahid W., without giving their full surnames.

They had left Germany in 2012 bound for Somalia, the prosecutions office said. The pair were suspected of receiving weapons training at a terrorist camp and then taking part in attacks staged by al-Shabab.

German authorities made three similar arrests at Frankfurt airport earlier this month.

Links to al Qaeda

Since 2006, the al Qaeda-linked militia, which wants to impose its strict version of Islam on Somalia, has targeted Somalia's interim government which has the backing of African and Western forces.

Al-Shabab fighters were driven out of Somalia's capital Mogadishu in 2011 but still hold other tracts of territory.

Kenya targeted

Last year, al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the assault by gunmen on Nairobi's Westgate Mall, which left 67 people dead.

It was one of a string of gun and grenade attacks in Kenya, which al-Shabab said were in retribution for Kenya's troop presence in Somalia as part of the African Union force AMISOM.

Earlier this month, a US airstrike killed al-Shabab's leader, Ahmed Godane.

In August, Somali government forces and African Union soldiers, including Kenyan troops, launched an offensive in southern Somalia aimed at seizing key ports from al-Shabab and cutting off multi-million dollar exports of charcoal.

ipj/lw (dpa, AFP, AP)