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Germans detain pair 'with bomb materials'
Source: Agencies |
September 9, 2011, Friday
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BERLIN police yesterday detained two men suspected of obtaining ingredients for a bomb after foreign intelligence agencies tipped off German authorities.
The men were detained three days before the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, and followed a weekend statement by the interior minister that threats to Germany remained "real and intensive."
Officers searched an Islamic center in Berlin where the pair had spent time, and the apartments of the two suspects, a 24-year-old German of Lebanese descent and a 28-year-old from Gaza, according to police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf.
The men are suspected of planning "a violent criminal act," and police had been watching them for several months, Neuendorf said.
A high-ranking security official said foreign intelligence agencies informed German authorities in late June that the pair posed a threat.
He said: "We were told one of the suspects was trying to buy bomb-making material."
He also confirmed that investigators found the material in the apartment of one of the suspects yesterday.
He added: "While this plot gives reason for concern, it is in no way comparable to previous terror plots in Germany, and the two do not seem to have links to any known terror groups."
The Islamic center that was searched is in the heavily immigrant Wedding neighborhood. About 10 police vans were seen around a building on which was a sign reading: "Ar-Rahman Mosque and Islamic Cultural Center for Religious Enlightenment."
Rainer Wendt, head of the German police union, said: "The suspects caught the attention of the police at an early stage, when they bought the material to build a bomb, and the police were able to arrest them in good time."
German officials say they have thwarted six attacks since the 2001 attacks in the US.
The men were detained three days before the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, and followed a weekend statement by the interior minister that threats to Germany remained "real and intensive."
Officers searched an Islamic center in Berlin where the pair had spent time, and the apartments of the two suspects, a 24-year-old German of Lebanese descent and a 28-year-old from Gaza, according to police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf.
The men are suspected of planning "a violent criminal act," and police had been watching them for several months, Neuendorf said.
A high-ranking security official said foreign intelligence agencies informed German authorities in late June that the pair posed a threat.
He said: "We were told one of the suspects was trying to buy bomb-making material."
He also confirmed that investigators found the material in the apartment of one of the suspects yesterday.
He added: "While this plot gives reason for concern, it is in no way comparable to previous terror plots in Germany, and the two do not seem to have links to any known terror groups."
The Islamic center that was searched is in the heavily immigrant Wedding neighborhood. About 10 police vans were seen around a building on which was a sign reading: "Ar-Rahman Mosque and Islamic Cultural Center for Religious Enlightenment."
Rainer Wendt, head of the German police union, said: "The suspects caught the attention of the police at an early stage, when they bought the material to build a bomb, and the police were able to arrest them in good time."
German officials say they have thwarted six attacks since the 2001 attacks in the US.
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