German police arrests 3 suspected ISIS operatives accused of planning attack near Frankfurt

German police on Tuesday evening, arrested 3 suspects, accused of planning an attack at Rhine-Main, near Frankfurt

Police report
Police report. Pixabay

In a raid by the German police, three suspected ISIS operatives have been arrested in the town of Offenbach-am-Main, on Tuesday evening. A total of 170 officers, that included members of an elite anti-terrorism team, known as SEK, burst into three flats in the town of Offenbach-am-Main. The three suspects, a 24-year-old German of Macedonian descent and two Turkish citizens in their early twenties, were arrested in different parts of the town, DW reported.

As per the authorities, the three suspects were planning an attack in the Rhine-Main region, near Frankfurt. They hadn't decided their target and the attack was foiled right on time, the authorities added.

The 24-year-old German of Macedonian descent, who is the main suspect has been reported to have procured requisite material to produce a homemade explosive. According to the Frankfurt prosecutor Nadja Niesen, the three suspects had told people about their support for the Islamic State. Regarding the attack, she said they aimed to kill "as many people, so-called infidels, as possible", RT reported.

As per the reports, all three were already known to the authorities who were investigating the suspected ISIS members, since October. Following the collapse of the so-called Islamic 'caliphate' in Iraq and Syria, the fighters from Europe have been coming back to their home countries.

Also, fighters from other countries have sought asylum in the west. This has placed the European nations at a high risk of attacks. Largest attack in Germany, since the fall of the caliphate, happened in 2016, when a rejected asylum-seeker from Tunisia Anis Amri, rammed a truck into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market which caused the death of 12 people. As per the authorities, 13 terrorist attacks have been foiled in Germany, since 2010.

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