Germany: three minors planning an “Islamist attack” placed in detention

Three minors suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Germany for an Islamist motive have been arrested. arrested and placed in provisional detention during the Easter weekend, announced German justice on Friday.

The arrest warrants concern three young people, two girls aged 15 and 16 and a 15-year-old boy from North Rhine-Westphalia (north-west), suspected of having “planned a terrorist attack with Islamist motivation and having admitted to being ready to commit it”, according to a press release from the public prosecutor's office in Düsseldorf (west).

“Due to the age of the suspects and the ongoing investigation”, the prosecution did not give additional details on what they were planning.

The German daily Bild claims that the teenagers planned to attack police officers and churches with knives and Molotov cocktails in the name of the Islamic State (IS).

“They have considered obtaining firearms”, adds the newspaper.

German authorities are on guard regarding the Islamist threat, particularly since the start of the conflict on October 7, 2023 between Israel and the Islamic movement Hamas.

Germany is a fervent defender of Israel because it believes it has a special responsibility towards this country after the massacre of six million Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

– The danger “remains acute”

In an interview with the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, granted just after a bloody attack at the end of March near Moscow, claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), the German Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, stressed that “the danger emanating Islamist terrorism remained acute” in Germany.

The authorities are all the more on the alert as Germany prepares to host the Euro football tournament (June 14-July 14).

Security during this event has “the highest priority”, according to German authorities.

In this interview, Ms. Faeser stated that “currently, the biggest Islamist threat in Germany (emanates) from the Islamic State – Khorasan Province” (EIK) “.

In recent months, two raids have taken place in the country targeting suspected members of this branch before they took action.

Two suspected Afghan jihadists suspected of having prepared an attack near the Swedish parliament were arrested in Thuringia (in eastern Germany) on March 19.

And at the end of December 2023, three suspected Islamists were arrested, suspected of having planned an attack on New Year's Eve against the Cologne Cathedral (west) with help ” of a car”.

So far, the deadliest jihadist attack committed on German soil dates back to December 2016: a ram truck attack claimed by the Islamic State group had killed 12 people at a Christmas market in the center of Berlin.

The number of people belonging to the specter of Islamist extremism in Germany has increased from 28,290 in 2021 to 27,480 in 2022, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

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