Hijacker's farewell love letter

Jarrah told his girlfriend to be proud, says magazine

One of the 11 September hijackers sent his German girlfriend a farewell letter on the eve of the attacks, the German news magazine Der Spiegel has reported.

"I have done what I had to do," says the letter from Ziad Jarrah, urging his girlfriend to be proud of him, the magazine reported in its Monday edition.

You should be very proud, because it is an honour, and in the end you will see that everyone will be happy

Ziad Jarrah to his girlfriend

But Jarrah apparently made a mistake when he wrote the German address, and the package was returned to the US, where it was passed to the FBI, said Der Spiegel.

Jarrah is believed to have been at the controls of the Boeing 757 which crashed in Pennsylvania, apparently after passengers tried to seize back the plane.

German prosecutors have confirmed that the package also contained documents relating to flight training which Jarrah had undergone.

Frauke Scheuten, from the German federal prosecutors' office, described Jarrah's communication as as a love letter.

Jarrah is thought to have been at the helm of United Airlines Flight 93

The four-page letter was sent to Jarrah's girlfriend, described as a medical student, in the western German city of Bochum.

"You should be very proud, because it is an honour, and in the end you will see that everyone will be happy," the letter is reported as saying.

And he tells his girlfriend: "Keep hold of what you have until we meet again."

Jarrah, who was Lebanese, lived in Hamburg as a student until several months before the attacks, studying engineering and aircraft construction.

Hamburg cell

Two of the other hijack pilots, Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, were also based in Hamburg, and prosecutors suspect the US attacks were planned by the three men.

The letter has been fabricated in an attempt to find evidence against Ziad Jarrah

Ziad Jarrah's uncle

Jarrah's relatives - who say he was a passenger, not a hijacker - have insisted that the letter is not genuine.

"The letter has been fabricated in an attempt to find evidence against Ziad Jarrah," his uncle, Jamal Jarrah told the US news agency Associated Press.

And he said it was suspicious that the letter's address reportedly contained a mistake, as he had known his girlfriend for five years and would not have made such an error.