Al-Qaeda Blames Germany For Nigeria Hostage Death

Al-Qaida’s North Africa branch has blamed Germany for the death of a German engineer killed during a military raid in Nigeria, though authorities in Europe apparently complied with at least one of the terrorist group’s demands by releasing a prisoner it wanted freed.

German Edgar Fritz Raupach, kidnapped in January by gunmen in the northern Nigeria city of

Kano, died May 31 as soldiers launched a raid against the house where his abductors held him. Nigeria’s military later said it had no idea gunmen held Raupach inside the home and that kidnappers stabbed him to death as the raid began.

According to Washington Post, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the terrorist group that claimed it held Raupach, issued a statement on an Internet forum this week, saying the hostage’s death came only after the German government refused to negotiate with it.

“Your government gave the green light for the operation,” the message posted late Monday night reads.

However, the group, known by the acronym AQIM, had demanded that German officials release Filiz Gelowicz, a German woman convicted last year of supporting a foreign terrorist network. Gelowicz’s husband was among a group convicted of plotting unsuccessfully to attack U.S. soldiers and citizens in Germany.