Arid (Arif) Uka

Published March 3, 2011

Arid (Arif) Uka

Arif or Arid Uka was born in Germany in 1989 to an Albanian family from Kosovo. Arid Uka’s grandfather was a religious leader at a Mosque in the village of Zhabar, near Mitrovica, Kosovo. His parents immigrated to Germany in the early 70 th’from the city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, lived in Frankfurt. Arid (Arif) Uka was educated in Germany, long before the civil war in former Yugoslavia breached out in 1992. Recently Arid Uka found a job in Frankfurt international airport post office.

Arid Uka lived in a 12-story apartment building in the working-class suburb of Sossenheim—in the same building where Rami M., linked to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan -IJU, also lived.

On Wednesday 03/02/2011, at about 15:20, Arid Uka opened fire on a bus with American Air Force personnel heading to the American Ramstein air base and killed two American service men at Frankfurt airport terminal 2 (see -Frankfurt Shooting). After the shooting, Arid Uka fled into the airport’s Terminal 2 building. There he was arrested by federal police officers, who had noticed him walking around nervously. Ramstein airbase was already, in 2007, a subject to a failed terror plot (see – Ramstein Plot). According to initial reports, Arid (Arif) Uka had a large quantity of ammunition on his person as well as the weapon apparently used in the attack (see also -Alert 11.17.10). Arid Uka has confessed to targeting American military members, a German security official said, on Thursday 03/03/201.

After the shooting the German authorities have found a profile on the social networking site Facebook, under the name AbuReyyan, which fits Arid Uka‘s details and they believe could belong to him. On the Facebook page, the young man makes little attempt to conceal his Islamist beliefs. Wall-Posts and friends, including Sven Lau form Einladung zum Paradies, indicates a strong pro-islamic attitude. Not all or most of the contents in Arid Uka’s account are related to militant Islam but to many other subjects too.

Sources in German security forces and from the US authorities said, few hours after the Frankfurt Attack, that there is substantial evidence linking Arid Uka to Islamist groups in Germany.

As the motto of his Facebook page, Arid (Arif) Uka has selected a saying by the Muslim conqueror Khalid bin Al Walid, a contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad: “May the eyes of the cowards never sleep.” Among the websites that the man lists as his favorites are some that have clear Islamist leanings, including one called “Rule of Islam.” On his Facebook “wall,” he has linked to a jihadist fighting song, and one of the comments on a friend’s posting refers to “these miserable kuffar (infidels).” The last entry is dated Monday 02/28/2011evening, two days before the attack.

In 08/2010, the alleged owner of the Facebook page Arid Uka apparently completed an online questionnaire regarding which weapon suited him best. The answer was the M82 Barrett sniper rifle. The reason given: “You’re the cautious type that prefers to take out his victim from a distance.”

Just recently, on 02/24/2011, the acting leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman Al Zawahiri, in an audio massage distributed through the web, called individuals to attack the west wherever, whenever they can and with whatever they have (see -Footage 02.24.11).

* Charged with two counts of murder and three of attempted murder, Arid Uka, on Wednesday 08/31/2011, told a German court he regrets shooting dead two US airmen and wounding two more at Frankfurt airport in March 2011, and does not understand why he did it.

** Arid (Arif) Uka was sentnced, on Friday 02/10/2012, by a German court, to life in prison.

* Related topics ;

2009 -GERMAN TALIBAM MUJAHIDEEN – GTM
2007 – SAUERLAND CELL
11/2008 -GERMAN POLICE RAID ON TERROR SUSPECTS
ISLAMIC RADICALIZATION IN GERMANY.

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