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Three held in German terror raids | Three held in German terror raids |
(20 minutes later) | |
Three men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks, officials have said. | Three men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks, officials have said. |
Federal prosecutors said the three were suspected members of "an Islamist terrorist organisation", but gave no further details. | Federal prosecutors said the three were suspected members of "an Islamist terrorist organisation", but gave no further details. |
Media reports said the men were planning attacks against a US military base in Ramstein and Frankfurt airport. | |
Defence minister Franz Josef Jung confirmed the arrests and said the men had posed "an imminent threat". | |
"The security services have done a very good job and I can't say anything more at this point," Mr Jung told German television. | |
'Major targets' | |
Reports said that two of the suspects were German while the third was Pakistani. | Reports said that two of the suspects were German while the third was Pakistani. |
Government sources told the AFP news agency that the three had links to Pakistan and had been experimenting with explosives and trying to build car bombs. | |
Prosecutors said the arrests took place on Tuesday afternoon. | Prosecutors said the arrests took place on Tuesday afternoon. |
Frankfurt airport is continental Europe's busiest, and the base at Ramstein in western Germany is a major transport hub for US military operations. | Frankfurt airport is continental Europe's busiest, and the base at Ramstein in western Germany is a major transport hub for US military operations. |
Germany, which did not send troops to Iraq, has been largely spared terrorist attacks, but there have been growing concerns that Islamist militants are operating in the country. | |
Last summer, two suitcase bombs were planted on commuter trains in several towns but they failed to explode. |