The Christmas season is now upon us, and for Europe, that also brings the threat of Islamic terror attacks on the continent's fabled Christmas markets, particularly in Germany. In December 2016, the Christmas market in Berlin was the target of a truck attack in which 12 people were killed. The truck had been stolen by a Tunisian man and deliberately driven into the crowd of people visiting the site. The terrorist was later tracked down and killed by Italian police outside Milan.
Now German police are on high alert and with good reason. Today, authorities in Lower Saxony and North Rhine Westphalia, in two separate cases, are announcing the arrests of three suspects who were allegedly planning to carry out attacks upon Christmas markets in Germany.
The below article in today's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) is translated by Fousesquawk. It concerns the arrest of a 20-year-old Iraqi man in Lower Saxony. It also mentions the arrests of two teenagers (15 and 16) in North Rhein Westphalia who were also planning separate attack(s) in that region of the country. In a separate article today, the FAZ identifies the latter two suspects as being of Afghan origin and Russian-Chechen origin.
Attack in the Christmas season?
Young man arrested due to possible terror plans
Updated 11-30-2023 at 23:46
A 20-year-old man had announced that he would carry out attacks during the Christmas season. Now he is in custody. Generally, the police think they are well prepared for security issues at the Christmas markets.
Due to suspicion that he planned a terror attack during the Christmas season, a 20-year-old man has been arrested in Lower Saxony. "He announced that he wanted to carry out attacks in connection with large events during the Christmas season, and that is why we have taken him into preventative custody," said Lower Saxony Interior Minister, Daniela Behrens (SPD) to NDR (North German Radio) Lower Saxony on Thursday.
The NDR reported after a joint investigation with WDR (West German Radio) that the suspect from Sachsen-Anhalt was arrested in Helmstedt on November 21. He comes from Iraq, said the interior minister.
"Very visible there and in force"
He "is in police custody based on security measures. The State Police of Lower Saxony are not giving further background due to tactical-investigative reasons at this time," the NDR quoted a State Police spokesperson.
With a view to the security situation at Christmas markets, Interior Minister Behrens, said that the police are "very visible there and in force," among other things because of the military conflict in the Middle East. And: " We also have other Islamists, who are no longer in the public eye, but who have announced (plans for) further attacks in the West."
Most recently, in North Rhine Westphalia, two young men were arrested who reportedly sympathized with the Islamic State and who allegedly planned a Christmas market attack. They are in custody. Ultimately, they allegedly agreed to kill visitors to a Christmas market in Leverkusen by a fuel-generated explosion in a small truck at the beginning of December," as the Public Prosecutor's Office reported on Thursday.
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