Police probe far-left and Islamist leads over Dortmund team bus bombing

From the German edition of The Local, The Daily Mail

Police are investigating two letters claiming responsibility for the explosive attack on the Borussia Dortmund team – one with possible links to Islamists, the other to the far left.

The coach had just left the club hotel ahead of their Champions League quarter-final clash with Monaco when the bombs were detonated in what is believed to have been a targeted attack. A police officer escorting the coach to the match on a motorcycle was also injured when the bombs detonated. He suffered hearing damage and shock and was unable to report for duty today. .. defender Marc Bartra broke a bone in his right wrist and later needed surgery to remove ‘foreign objects’ from his body.

Police found a letter near the site of the blasts, claiming responsibility for the three explosions, which happened at 7.15pm on Tuesday evening, DPA and Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reported on Wednesday based on information from police sources.

The letter begins with the words “In the name of Allah the merciful, the compassionate,” according to SZ.

The letter also mentions a terror attack on a Christmas market in Berlin in December, and alleges that German Tornado military jets are involved in the murder of Muslims in the areas of Syria controlled by Isis.

The letter goes on to say that prominent people “in Germany and other crusader nations” are on “an Isis death list” until Germany withdraws its Tornado jets from the fight against Isis and a US military base in Ramstein, Germany is closed.

But investigators caution that it is too early to say if the letter is genuine or if it is meant to deceive the police into following a wrong line of enquiry, reports SZ. Analysts, including experts on Islam, are now studying the letter’s veracity.

According to DPA sources, police are now investigating another letter claiming responsibility for the attack, this one purportedly from the far-left Antifa (anti-fascist) scene. The letter was found on Tuesday evening online, and reportedly says that the attack was against the team because of what Borussia Dortmund symbolizes, namely racism, Nazis, and right-wing populism,

Security sources stressed to DPA that they must examine the authenticity of the two letters claiming responsibility, and that the motive behind the attack is in no way yet certain.

The two letters could be fake to lead police down the wrong path, according to DPA, and they have not ruled out whether suspects could also be violent football fans, extortionists, other criminals, or people with right-wing extremist beliefs.

Police are assuming that the blasts were caused by ‘serious explosive devices’, set off by a mobile phone or a garage door-opening device. The ‘special’ construction of the explosives should afford investigators some clues in determining who might be responsible, according to the German newspaper Bild. While investigators do not yet know the source of the explosions, police have confirmed that additional ‘suspicious objects’ were found at the Dortmund team hotel in the wake of the bus bombing.