Germany Charges 4 Syrians in Plot to Attack Düsseldorf

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/world/europe/germany-dusseldorf-isis.html

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BERLIN — The German police arrested three Syrians on Thursday who are suspected of traveling to Europe on behalf of the Islamic State to attack a popular district of the western city of Düsseldorf, federal prosecutors said.

A fourth man, also a Syrian citizen who is in custody in France, was charged with supporting the plot. The plan involved suicide bombings, as well as attacks with firearms and explosives, the prosecutors said.

It was the latest move by German officials to thwart a terrorist plot since the deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels. The Islamic State has called for further attacks in Europe, and United States officials have warned that the group is operating terrorist cells in Britain, Italy and Germany.

The prosecutors said three men, identified as Hamza C., 27, Mahood B., 25, and Abd Arahman A. K., 31, were detained by the police in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Baden-Württemberg. The police acted on charges issued Wednesday and based on information acquired from a fourth man, identified only as Saleh A., 25, who spoke to the French authorities about the plot after he was detained in Paris in February.

At least two of the suspects entered Germany during last year’s influx of refugees, the prosecutors said. German news media reported that two of the men had been living in refugee shelters and at least one had submitted an application for asylum.

All four are charged with plotting an attack, while Saleh A., Hamza C. and Abd Arahman A. K. are further suspected of being members of the Islamic State. Mahood B. is suspected of supporting the terrorist organization.

Prosecutors said Saleh A. and Hamza C. joined the Islamic State in early 2014 in Syria, where they were ordered by leaders of the organization to carry out an attack in an area of Düsseldorf that is packed with bars and cafes and is popular with residents and partying tourists. The plot was not connected to the European soccer championship that it is to begin in France on June 10, the prosecutors said.

The pair had planned for two suicide bombers to detonate explosives along a main thoroughfare near the area’s subway station, while other armed attackers were to carry out further killings with weapons and more explosives. Saleh A. and Hamza C. left Syria for Turkey in May 2014, then traveled separately to Greece and north through Europe to Germany, arriving in March and July 2015, prosecutors said. Abd Arahman A. K., who had received training in explosives while in Syria, was sent by the Islamic State to Germany in October 2014, they said.

By January at the latest, the pair had convinced Mahood B. to join their plot, prosecutors said.

But the next month, Saleh A. began speaking to the French authorities in Paris, where he remains in detention. German prosecutors said they would seek his extradition.