Police in Germany have arrested three Islamic militants suspected of planning major terrorist attacks, Police in Germany have arrested three Islamic militants suspected of planning major terrorist attacks on Frankfurt’s airport and the United States military base at Ramstein.
The suspects — two German citizens and a Turkish resident of Germany — were within days of carrying out bombing attacks, said a German security official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
German federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the three had trained at terror camps in Pakistan and procured some 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives. And a top legislator said the group could have struck “in a few days,” noting a “sensitive period” that includes the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“This is a good day for security in Germany,” she said.
Officials said the hydrogen peroxide could have produced a bomb with the explosive power of 540 kg of TNT.
“This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid bombings,” Ziercke said at a joint news conference with Harms.
The arrests were made Tuesday evening at a vacation home in Oberschlendorn, a sleepy village in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, north of Frankfurt. The suspects were mixing chemicals to make explosives, the official said. Police also found a van that they believe was to be used to transport the explosives to Frankfurt and Ramstein, in southwestern Germany.
For months, German officials have warned that the country was under threat of a terrorist attack, in part because of the German military’s deployment in Afghanistan. Officials said that they were particularly worried by reports of Germans taking part in terrorist training camps in Pakistan, near the Afghan border, and then returning to Germany with a goal of carrying out attacks.
