German police arrested seven men on Thursday on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.
The Central Asian men “have known each other for some time and share a radical Islamic ideology,” the German prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Shortly after the outbreak of war in Ukraine in early 2022, the seven men “traveled to Germany at about the same time”.
In June 2022, the seven, together with another suspect arrested in the Netherlands, formed a cell “with the aim of committing terrorist attacks by the Islamic State”.
“The suspects had already scouted targets in Germany, searched possible crime scenes and tried to obtain weapons,” prosecutors said.
The men, including five from Turkmenistan, one from Tajikistan and one from Kyrgyzstan, were arrested by police at various locations in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of western Germany.
With the exception of the Kyrgyz suspect, they were accused of “raising money for the Islamic State since April 2022”.
Another suspect from Tajikistan and his wife have been arrested by the Dutch authorities. The two were charged with “committing acts preparatory to terrorist crimes”.
“Our security forces remain strongly focused on countering Islamic terrorism,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.
Source: DN
