Foreign Relations of Germany - Disputes

Disputes

In 2001, the discovery that the terrorist cell which carried out the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, was based in Hamburg, sent shock waves through the country.

The government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder backed the following U.S. military actions, sending Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan to lead a joint NATO program to provide security in the country after the ousting of the Taliban.

Nearly all of the public was strongly against America's 2003 invasion of Iraq, and any deployment of troops. This position was shared by the SPD/Green government, which led to some friction with the United States.

In August 2006, the German government disclosed a botched plot to bomb two German trains. The attack was to occur in July 2006 and involved a 21-year-old Lebanese man, identified only as Youssef Mohammed E. H. Prosecutors said Youssef and another man left suitcases stuffed with crude propane-gas bombs on the trains.

As of February 2007, Germany had about 3,000 NATO-led International Security Assistance Force force in Afghanistan as part of the War on Terrorism, the third largest contingent after the United States (14,000) and the United Kingdom (5,200). German forces are mostly in the more secure north of the country.

However, Germany, along with some other larger European countries (with the exception of the UK and the Netherlands), have been criticised by the British and Canadians for not sharing the burden of the more intensive combat operations in southern Afghanistan.