Amid threats, Afghanistan leaps to fore of German election

BERLIN (AP) As Germany prepares for Sunday's national elections, heavily armed police officers are patrolling airports and train stations.

This, after a warning from al-Qaida that said if Germans don't push their political parties to pull soldiers out of Afghanistan, they will face an attack from the terror group.

The threats follow an airstrike that was ordered by Germany in northern Afghanistan, in which dozens of people were killed.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (AHN'-geh-lah MEHR'-kuhl) is continuing to back the mission in Afghanistan, and is assuring Germans that "everything is being done for their security." Five years ago in Spain, a bombing by Islamic radicals killed 191 people on Madrid trains, just days ahead of a vote in which a government that had supported the war in Iraq was removed.

Only one of the five parties in Germany's parliament, the opposition Left Party, has openly advocated withdrawing now from Afghanistan.

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