Germany said yesterday it had foiled a "massive" attack with the arrest of three Islamic extremists who were targeting airports, as well as bars and discotheques used by Americans.
"They were planning massive attacks," Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms said.
"As possible targets ... the suspects named discotheques and pubs and airports frequented by Americans with a view to detonating explosives loaded in cars and killing or injuring many people," Harms told a press conference.
PHOTO: AP
The men, two Germans and a Turk aged 22, 28 and 29, had amassed vast amounts of hydrogen peroxide, the same chemical used by suicide bombers in the 2005 attacks on London's transport system which killed 56 people, Harms said.
Harms said the men had obtained enough materials to make a bomb with an explosive power equal to 550kg of TNT and that an attack appeared imminent.
The chemicals had been stockpiled in a town in the Black Forest.
Arrested on Tuesday, the men allegedly belonged to an organization with ties to al-Qaeda called Islamic Jihad Union, which German authorities have suspected for several months of planning attacks.
One of the three suspects was arrested for spying on a US military base in December but was released soon afterwards, federal police chief Joerg Ziercke said.
All three of the men had attended a training camp in Pakistan last year.
There was no confirmation of media reports that the men had been specifically targeting Frankfurt airport and the giant US military base in Ramstein.
Heinrich Nolte, the mayor of Medebach-Oberschledorn, the town where the suspects were arrested, said one of them had been shot by police, although this was not confirmed by prosecutors
"I was told that one of the suspects was shot but I do not know how badly he was injured," Nolte said.
The arrests come after police in Denmark said on Tuesday they had foiled a terrorist attack after arresting eight men they said had links to al-Qaeda.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in May that Islamist groups represented the "biggest threat to the stability and security of Germany."
The US embassy in Germany said in April it was increasing security at US facilities in the country in response to "a heightened threat situation."
US counter-terrorism officials said subsequently that authorities had intelligence suggesting Islamic extremists were planning to attack US targets in Germany with bombs and small arms.
Rolf Tophoven, a leading expert on terrorism in Germany, said the arrests showed "that the threat to Germany is not abstract."
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