Paper that ran cartoons firebombed

A German tabloid that paid tribute to those killed at Charlie Hebdo by reprinting cartoons from the French satirical paper mocking the Prophet Muhammad was targeted in a firebombing Sunday, the police said.

With security services on high alert after a jihadi killing spree in Paris, the police in the northern German port city of Hamburg said that no one was at the headquarters of the regional daily Hamburger Morgenpost at the time of the attack, which caused only slight damage.

The Hamburg police said that it was “too soon” to tell whether there was a connection between the Charlie Hebdo tribute and the firebombing, which would mark the first revenge attack over the cartoons since Wednesday’s massacre of 12 people at the French weekly. State security forces took over the investigation.

“Rocks and then a burning object were thrown through the window,” a police spokesman said. “Two rooms on lower floors were damaged but the fire was put out quickly.” The Hamburger Morgenpost, known locally as the MOPO, had splashed the Charlie Hebdo cartoons on its front page after the murders at the Paris publication, running the headline “This much freedom must be possible!”

The police said the attack had occurred at about 0120 GMT and that two men seen acting suspiciously near the scene were detained.

Meanwhile the bloodshed in France could signal the start of a wave of attacks in Europe, according to communications by ISIS leaders intercepted by US intelligence, German newspaper Bild reported Sunday.

Shortly after the attacks in Paris, the US National Security Agency had intercepted communications in which leaders of ISIS announced the next wave of attacks, the tabloid said, citing unnamed sources.