http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4146969.stm
Last Updated: Tuesday, 4 January, 2005, 18:37 GMT
Thousands are said to have joined al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan
Some 70,000 people received weapons training and religious instruction in
al-Qaeda camps, German police says.
The claim came at the retrial of Mounir al-Motassadek, a Moroccan man accused
of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, which were partly planned in Germany.
A German police officer told the court recruits at the camps were taught they
had a duty to kill US citizens.
Mr Motassadek says he received training in Afghanistan and knew some of the
9/11 hijackers - but not of their plot.
Although initially convicted of involvement in the attacks, he is now facing a
retrial.
The case against him collapsed last year when a judge ruled that US
authorities' refusal to allow lawyers access to a key witness in their custody
had prejudiced proceedings.
'Hamburg cell'
Giving evidence at the retrial, an officer from the German police body that
co-ordinates the fight against terrorism said new al-Qaeda recruits were be
stripped of their passports and taken to safe houses.
They also received a new name before being taken to al-Qaeda camps, most of
which were located in Afghanistan.
An estimated 3,000 people died when al-Qaeda militants hijacked US passenger
airliners and ploughed them into targets in New York and Washington on 11
September 2001.
Several key hijackers had lived in the German city of Hamburg and were referred
to by investigators as the "Hamburg cell".
Al-Qaeda's training facilities in Afghanistan are believed to have largely been
destroyed by a US-led invasion in late 2001.
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