With the arrest of two young suspected terror planners, security authorities may have prevented terrible scenes at a Christmas market shortly before the first Advent.
The two young people arrested on suspicion of terrorism are said to have sympathized with the so-called Islamic State and planned a Christmas market attack with a vehicle and an explosion. They are in custody in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg.
They are said to have ultimately agreed “to kill visitors to a Christmas market in Leverkusen at the beginning of December using a fuel-generated explosion in a small truck,” according to the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office.
The 15-year-old arrested in North Rhine-Westphalia claims to have already procured gasoline. This tip came from German security authorities, explained senior public prosecutor Holger Heming in Düsseldorf. However, no fuel was found during searches. There was a “very concrete thought model” for planning the crime.
However, a preparatory implementation has not yet been objectively established. So far there is no evidence that they had already purchased a small truck. According to information from security circles, both are said to have specifically arranged to meet.
IS sympathizers
According to the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office, the young people are said to have planned their attack based on the goals and approaches of the so-called Islamic State (IS). They therefore planned to leave the country after the attack to join the foreign terrorist IS group “Khorasan Province”. This IS offshoot has been waging an armed conflict with the militant Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan for several years.
The senior public prosecutor spoke of ideologically aligned sympathizers. There was no mention of actual membership or actual contact. According to the public prosecutor’s office, storage media was seized during searches in connection with the 15-year-old, which still need to be evaluated.
An arrest warrant was issued against him on Wednesday. The Neuruppin district court also issued an arrest warrant against the 16-year-old in the evening, it said. There is strong suspicion against him of having planned and prepared an attack on the Internet with the 15-year-old in North Rhine-Westphalia. The 15-year-old was arrested on Tuesday in Burscheid near Leverkusen, the 16-year-old in Wittstock/Dosse in northern Brandenburg.
NRW Interior Minister: “It seemed very concrete”
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) said on Wednesday: “It seemed very concrete.” The reference to the young people came from abroad. Security circles had said that the 15-year-old from North Rhine-Westphalia initially had his sights set on a synagogue in addition to a Christmas market.
The younger man is accused, among other things, of conspiring to commit a crime, namely insidious murder for base motives, as well as preparing a serious act of violence that endangers the state, the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday. According to the NRW Interior Ministry, it is a German-Afghan. According to the Brandenburg Ministry of the Interior, the 16-year-old has Russian citizenship.
Faeser warns of Islamist attacks
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) warned of attacks in view of the arrests and the Gaza war. “Islamist terrorist organizations, but also Islamist individual perpetrators, are a significant danger that exists at all times,” she told the editorial network Germany (RND). The Gaza war has a direct impact on the security situation.
“We have taken such consistent action against the Islamist scene in recent weeks because we have a close eye on the changing threat situation.” It is thanks to the Federal Criminal Police Office that around 170 channels or content have now been removed on the Telegram network alone, “which were used to spread disgusting anti-Semitic and Islamist propaganda,” said Faeser.
Before the arrests became known, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had warned that, against the backdrop of the Middle East conflict, the risk of possible terrorist attacks against Jewish and Israeli people and institutions as well as against “the West” had increased significantly. However, the greatest danger does not come from supporters of Hamas or the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, but from terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS).
The young people’s alleged plans are reminiscent of the attack on December 19, 2016 at the Memorial Church in Berlin. At that time, an Islamist terrorist drove into the Christmas market in a hijacked truck. A total of 13 people died as a result of the crime, one of them as a result years later.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
