Syrians arrested in Germany over ‘foiled IS attack plan’

BERLIN - German police have arrested three Syrian men over an alleged foiled plan to launch a suicide attack for the Islamic State militant group, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

According to the suspects’ plan, two attackers were to detonate suicide vests while others were to kill passersby with guns and other explosives in the western city of Duesseldorf, prosecutors said in a statement. Three suspects aged 25, 27 and 31 were arrested in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Baden-Wurttemberg, while a fourth man aged 25 has been in custody in France since February, they said.

“According to the plans by Saleh A. and Hamza C., two suicide attackers were to set off their explosives vests at the Heinrich-Heine-Allee, a major street in Duesseldorf,” the prosecutors said in the statement.

“In addition, other attackers were to kill many passersby with guns and other explosives,” it said, identifying the third man arrested in Germany as Abd Arahman A. K.

The statement said there was no evidence “that the accused had already initiated the concrete implementation of their attack plan”.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt