Fears of new Baader-Meinhof gang after Berlin rail bombs

Since Monday there have been 16 incendiary devices planted on rail tracks around the city. Some destroyed signalling equipment, others failed to detonate due to faulty timers.

Near the Sudkreuz mainline station yesterday police found more firebomb materials and rendered them safe.

The incidents have led to politicians and the chief of the police union warning of a return to the days of terror that hit West Germany in the 1970s.

Rainer Wendt, chief of the German Police Union, said: “We are experiencing a renaissance of the Red Army Faction. The leftist terror is on the rise.”

Wolfgang Bosbach, chairman of the parliamentary committee for internal affairs and a member of the ruling CDU conservatives, spoke of an “enormous criminal energy” behind the attacks. He added “The RAF terror of the 1970s began with attacks which the perpetrators stated were against things, not people. Look what they moved on to.

“Whoever launches attacks on the railway brings thousands of people into peril each time.”

The Baader-Meinhof gang, named after founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, later became known as the Red Army Faction. Kidnappings, bombings, assassinations, bank robberies and gunfights paralysed the state and left dozens dead as RAF activists fought for the overthrow of the “war generation” to bring East German-style Communism to the West.

Before this week’s bombings, there were already indications of leftist agitation; 600 expensive cars were torched in Berlin by anarchists earlier this year and numerous police vehicles have been set on fire in the capital and neighbouring Brandenburg.

The foiled bomb attacks indicate a significant ratcheting up of a campaign which, say police, could cost lives unless the perpetrators are caught. The government’s own figures show a spike of 70 per cent in far-left vandalism, attacks and threats this year over last.

A left-wing group calling itself Hekla – after the Icelandic volcano – claimed responsibility for the Berlin firebombs online. It condemned the German army’s mission in Afghanistan and demanded the release of imprisoned US soldier Bradley Manning, accused of having giving US secrets to WikiLeaks.

In May, there was another fire-raising attack on railway equipment, which caused travel delays, and an upsurge in hate propaganda on the internet.

One site tells people how to find the “weak spots” in police protective body armour to injure officers.

Mr Wendt warned; “The new terrorist groups are decentralised, loosely affiliated with many individual small groups.

“This makes them harder to catch.”

Fuelled by a hatred of banks and the rich, recruiting young people with no hope of a job, the self-styled new radicals are now under the observation of intelligence services in Germany.

Yesterday Germany’s BKA – the equivalent of America’s FBI – took sole charge of hunting down the rail bombers.