Vienna: A new videotape has surfaced in which Islamist militants threaten to attack Germany and Austria if they do not pull their troops out of Afghanistan, media reported here today. A spokesman for the interior ministry, Rudolf Gollia, confirmed the existence of the tape, which media reports said also demanded Austria release two people held over a similar threatening video since September.

In the video, reported by Austrian television ORF and the weekly newspaper News, the militants identified themselves as the Globale Islamistische Medienfront or GIMF (Global Islamist Media Front). Gollia said the ministry had received the video, which lasts about four minutes, a number of days ago and described it as "an abstract threat".

"We re taking it seriously. But it does not alter the security situation" in Austria, he said. "We can't say where the video originated. We re in the process of analysing that with our colleagues" at the German domestic intelligence service, the spokesman said.

Three presumed GIMF militants were arrested in Vienna in September in connection with a similar video, also threatening to attack Austria and Germany, that had been distributed in March. One of the three suspects was released in mid-September, while the two main suspects, a 20-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman, remain in custody in Vienna.

Source : PTI