Armed German special police officers escort a handcuffed suspect (L) from the German Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe September 5, 2007. [photo: Xinhua/Reuters]
German security forces arrested three terrorist suspects, accusing them of plotting to bomb Frankfurt airport and a U.S. military base, German media reported on Wednesday September 5th.
German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung disclosed the news on state television, but he offered few details, German television station Deutsche Welle reported.
"There was an imminent security threat," the minister said, adding that the attacks on the airport and the military base at Ramstein in southwestern Germany were scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Speaking at a press conference in Karlsruhe on Wednesday, Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms said the suspects were two German converts to Islam and a Turkish Muslim, all in their 20s.
Harms was quoted by Deutsche Welle as saying that they were members of the Islamic Jihad Union, which has its origins in Uzbekistan and they attended a militant training camp in Pakistan last year.
The prosecutor also said the suspects had collected massive quantities of hydrogen peroxide, the same chemical used by suicide bombers in the 2005 London attacks that killed 56 people.
The prosecutor said once turned into bombs, the material could provoke an explosion with the same magnitude as 550 kilograms of dynamite.
German security forces seized the materials on Tuesday in the small town of Oberschledorn in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Jorg Ziercke, head of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), said the Islamic Jihad Union was linked to al-Qaeda.
He said security forces zeroed in on the suspects when it became clear the three had begun making bombs.
According to Harms, the suspects were apparently planning to detonate a series of car bombs simultaneously targeting U.S. military facilities in Germany.
Local public radio SWR also reported that the US military base at Ramstein, one of the largest US military facilities in Europe, was a possible target.
Other reports, based on Berlin security sources, indicated that the suspects also intended to hit Frankfurt's international airport.
