Toy-plane terror attacks?
June 25, 2013
According to public broadcasters Bayerischer Rundfunk and Südwest Rundfunk police raided several apartments in the southern states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Saxony. The attorney general in Karlsruhe has confirmed the raids were part of an investigation of planned terror attacks.
Police in Bavaria and Saxony reportedly had information that two men had been planning attacks using remote-controlled toy aircraft. They reportedly secured documents and technical equipment.
The Bavarian public broadcaster linked the suspects in both cases, claiming they were of Tunisian origin. Südwest Rundfunk reported that the suspects were engineering students enrolled at Stuttgart University, where they had been studying aviation technology.
Police in Baden-Württemberg's Stuttgart area were contributing to an investigation of money transfers in connection with suspected money laundering by an Islamist organization.
The raids follow recent renewed warnings by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Verfassungsschutz, that Germany was to be considered a major target for Islamist terrorists. Presenting the agency's latest report at the beginning of June, the head of the organization - Hans-Georg Maassen - warned that the Islamist groups were fragmented, making surveillance and prosecution more difficult.
rg/dr (AFP, dpa)