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Foiled bombing plot in France

In December 2000, an al Qaeda linked plot to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market, at the feet of the Strasbourg Cathedral, on New Year's Eve was discovered. The plot was foiled by French and German police after a terrorist network based in Frankfurt, Germany, the "Frankfurt group", was unravelled. A total of fourteen people were convicted as part of the plot; four in Germany and ten in France, including the operational leader, Mohammed Bensakhria ( "Meliani"), thought to be a European deputy to Osama bin Laden. The alleged mastermind of the plot was thought to have been Abu Doha, who was detained in the United Kingdom.

After being tipped off by British intelligence, German police on 26 December 2000 discovered bomb making equipment during a raid of an apartment in Frankfurt. Four men were arrested. Among the findings were several pressure cookers, 30 kg of chemicals that could be used to make explosives, and a notebook describing how to mix homemade bombs. A video was also discovered, showing a crowded Christmas market in Strasbourg, with a voiceover in Arabic calling the people in the video "enemies of Allah." The voiceover, attributed to one of the suspects, further said "This cathedral is Allah's enemy," and "You will go to hell, Allah willing." British police arrested twelve people including Doha in February 2001 as a result of the Frankfurt operation. According to the Frankfurt court, the group had planned to blow up pressure cookers packed with explosives, as they had learned in training camps in Afghanistan. The target was reported to have been the Christmas market at the Strasbourg Cathedral on New Year's Eve. The suspects, all Algerian or French Algerian, were sentenced to terms of up to 10 years, convicted for "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise" with alleged connections to terrorist networks in the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. The group's alleged leaders, Mohammed Bensakhria (a. k. a. Meliani, considered one of Osama bin Laden's "lieutenants" in Europe), 37, and Slimane Khalfaoui, 29, were given 10 years, and Yacine Akhnouche, 30, was given eight. Bensakhria, the suspected ringleader, was thought to have fled Germany as he was arrested in Spain in 2001 and subsequently extradited to France. Rabah Kadre, 37, who was in detention in the United Kingdom was given six years, and was banned from entering French territory. The six other suspects, who received lesser terms, were convicted for giving logistical support to the plot by providing false documents to other group members.