Europeans trained in Pak terror camps planning attacks: report

There is growing evidence that some European recruits may have already gone operational, the television network said, adding that two of the suspects arrested in a September 2007 plot to kill American soldiers in Germany were native Germans.

An April 2008 report from Europol also noted that an increasing number of European nationals attended training in Pakistan “and were later involved in, or suspected of, terrorist offences in the EU”, the report said.

Intelligence officials told ABC News that the remote tribal areas along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan have in the last several years become a haven for terrorist recruiting and training. Hundreds of radicals from across the region have flocked to al-Qaeda training camps in the area. In interviews with the network and in a series of little-noticed public statements and reports, intelligence officials have said they believe al-Qaeda has successfully completed a major goal: recruiting and training Western would-be terrorists.

“Al-Qaeda is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the US: the identification, training and positioning of operatives for an attack in the Homeland,” ABC News said, citing a February Threat Assessment report from the Director of National Intelligence.