German officials warn of attacks in election year

BERLIN Jan 31 (Reuters) - Islamist militants may seize on Germany's federal election this year to stage attacks and pressure the government to withdraw its soldiers from Afghanistan, senior security officials said on Saturday.

Germany's top police officer compared the situation with that in Spain where militants -- seeking to influence the 2004 election and pressure Spain to pull its troops from Iraq -- killed 191 people in train bombings in Madrid before the vote.

Joerg Ziercke, head of the BKA Federal Crime Office, told Focus weekly that recent video messages purportedly by Islamist militants show Germany and German institutions abroad were threatened.

"We see clear parallels to the situation in Spain," he added.

Germany's federal election is scheduled for September.

Germany, which has gradually increased its participation in overseas military missions, has a mandate to send 4,500 soldiers to Afghanistan as part of a NATO peacekeeping force.

Both parties in Germany's grand coalition, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Conservatives and the Social Democrats, support Germany's involvement in Afghanistan.

The small far-left Left party is against the mission in Afghanistan, and several members of the opposition Greens have also voiced their opposition to German involvement there.

Heinz Fromm, head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, referred to several videos aired in past weeks that showed German-speaking militants threatening to stage attacks.

"The message is: 'You Germans are in Afghanistan with your soldiers. We don't like that. Make your politicians change that'," Fromm told Hamburger Abendblatt Daily.

"The danger of Islamists staging a terror attack in Germany is very large," he said, adding that several hundred people in Germany were potential Islamist "terrorists".

Unlike other European countries such as Britain or Spain, Germany has not experienced a major attack on home soil in recent years.

Ziercke said militants of German origin constituted a particular danger. "They know the German infrastructure, are integrated and don't raise much attention with their looks," he said. "We have to assume they are ready to do anything." (Reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich; Editing by Katie Nguyen)