Berlin - Police fear that a convert, Eric B, 20, is being groomed by Jihadists to become the first German suicide bomber, according to the news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday. German police had lost track of B several weeks ago in the wilds in or near Afghanistan, where he was in training with Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), an Uzbek-origin terrorist group regarded as just as threatening as Arab-based al-Qaeda.
The news magazine said the fears were based on a recent IJU claim of responsibility which included a photograph of two men: Said Kurdi, the nom de guerre of a man who blew himself up in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, and B, with the implication that B might do likewise.
The two men were shown kneeling in the open air next to an IJU banner. The image was obtained in Berlin last Tuesday.
B is a native of Germany's western state of Saarland. IJU is alleged to have recruited about a dozen German converts to Islam.
In the report, to appear in its Monday issue, Spiegel quoted German police officials saying the fact that the two men had trained together "makes a future attack by B all the more likely."
