German authorities announced on Tuesday the arrest of a 28-year-old Syrian man with “radical Islamist and jihadist” convictions, suspected of having planned with the complicity of his brother an explosive attack in Germany.
The main suspect, a resident of Hamburg, in the north of the country, was arrested after searches carried out by the federal police.
He is suspected of having sought “to manufacture a belt of homemade explosives in order to perpetrate an attack targeting civilian targets”, said the police and the general prosecutor’s office of Hamburg in a press release.
To this end, he has been buying for several weeks via the eBay platform and other suppliers components that can be used to manufacture explosives.
His 24-year-old brother, who lives in Kempten in Bavaria (south), would have supported him in his project, and would thus have been his accomplice.
“There is no indication of a concrete target of the attack,” said the authorities.
Some 250 police officers participated in the searches in Hamburg and Kempten as well as with acquaintances of the two men. They seized several pieces of evidence, including chemicals.
In another case, a knife attack in a fitness center in Duisburg committed on April 18, investigators have retained an “Islamist” motive, the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.
A 26-year-old Syrian is the main suspect in this attack which injured four people, one of them very seriously. The alleged perpetrator was arrested overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
An analysis of his cell phone led investigators to favor the Islamist track, according to the prosecution. During a search of the suspect’s home, the police also discovered two knives likely to have been used in the attack.
The German authorities have remained on the alert in recent years in the face of a double terrorist threat, jihadism and right-wing extremism.
Germany has been the victim of jihadist attacks, in particular a ram truck attack claimed by the Islamic State group which killed 12 people in December 2016 in Berlin. This jihadist attack is the deadliest ever committed on German soil.
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