Terror scares in Germany

2007-09-05 14:13

Berlin - Germany arrested three men suspected of belonging to an Islamist terror group and planning attacks, German officials said on Wednesday.

Here are details of significant arrests and attempted attacks in Germany.

September 2001 - German authorities say three of the suspected hijackers who rammed planes into the US World Trade Centre and Pentagon had studied in Hamburg. German police subsequently arrest several individuals in connection with the attacks.

April 2002 - Nine men alleged to be members of the Palestinian group Al Tawhid are arrested following attack on Germans in Tunisia and accused of planning bombings on civilian targets around Germany.

December 2004 - Three Iraqi men are arrested in connection with an alleged plan to assassinate the then Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during a visit to Berlin. The arrested men are linked to Ansar al-Islam, listed by Germany as a terrorist organisation and described by the United States as a major insurgent group in Iraq linked to al-Qaeda.

June 2005 - An appeals court upholds the acquittal of Moroccan Abdelghani Mzoudi who was accused of complicity in the September 11 attacks and belonging to a terrorist group. He was expelled as he posed a danger to Germany.

October 2005 - Four Arab men found guilty of planning to bomb Jewish targets in Germany on the orders of militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi received sentences of between five and eight years. They had planned attacks on two Jewish-owned Duesseldorf discos and a Berlin community centre.

July 2006 - A group of foreign students from Lebanon fail in their attempt to detonate propane gas tanks on trains in the Dortmund and Koblenz areas.

November 2006 - German authorities say they are investigating a group of people in connection with what they suspect was a foiled plot to smuggle a bomb onto a passenger plane. The plane would have been at Frankfurt International Airport and the target was a plane belonging to Israel's El Al airline.

January 2007 - Germany's highest court rejected an appeal by Moroccan Mounir El Motassadeq, friend of the September 11 hijackers, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in November 2006 for being an accessory to mass murder.

September 2007 - Three men arrested on suspect of planning attacks at Frankfurt international airport and a major US military base in Ramstein, south west Germany.

- Reuters