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Frankfurt airport attack foiled
05/09/2007 10:16 - (SA)
Berlin - Germany has arrested three men suspected of belonging to an Islamist terrorist group who were planning attacks on Frankfurt international airport and a major US military base, German officials said on Wednesday.
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung told German television
that the three had been planning to launch the attacks on their
targets soon.
"There was an imminent security threat," Jung said, adding
it was "very concrete".
"The security services have done a very good job and I can't
say anything more at this point."
The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe said raids had been carried out in several German states.
"The German federal prosecutors office ordered the arrest
yesterday afternoon of three suspected members of an Islamic
terrorist organisation," it said in a statement.
Earlier, German public broadcast network Suedwestrundfunk
(SWR) quoted security sources in Berlin as saying two of the
suspects were German nationals and one had a Pakistani passport.
German television reported that explosive materials had been
found in an apartment in a town in the northern state of Hesse.
It said the planning was at an advanced stage.
Another German network reported that shots had been fired
when police raided a house in a town in the western state of
North Rhine-Westphalia.
September 11 anniversary
"There are clear indications that at a minimum Ramstein and
the Frankfurt airport were possible targets and that they would
not have waited long to strike," leading conservative politician
Wolfgang Bosbach told German television station N24.
He said the plot may have been timed to coincide with the
anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
There was no comment from Frankfurt airport, one of Europe's
busiest. The Ramstein base in the nearby state of
Rhineland-Palatinate, 130km southwest of the
airport, is one of the most important US air bases overseas.
The arrests come a day after Danish police conducted raids
and took eight young Muslims into custody whom they suspect of
plotting a bomb attack and having links with al-Qaeda.
Germany, which has forces stationed in Afghanistan, has been
on high alert for attacks. The country has feared a re-emergence
of militant Islamic groups since 2001, when the northern city of
Hamburg was used as a base for planning the September 11 attacks.
- Reuters
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