A "high-ranking" al Qaeda member in Afghanistan had planned major terror attacks in Germany with at least three recruits who were recently arrested, German authorities said Saturday.
The mastermind had been making plans as early as the beginning of last year and "recruited several dedicated personnel" who were trained along the Afghan-Pakistani border and "plotted to commit at least two attacks in Germany," said federal prosecutor Rainer Griesbaum after the three made an initial court appearance Saturday in Karlsruhe.
According to a federal court statement, the main suspect is a Moroccan national identified as 29-year-old national Abdeladim El-K., who is specifically accused of getting weapons and explosives training at an al Qaeda training camp last year. Authorities believe that the al Qaeda member ordered him in spring of 2010 to carry out a bombing in Germany.
The other suspects are 31-year-old Jamil S., who has German and Moroccan citizenship; and 19-year-old Amid C., who has German and Iranian citizenship. A court statement said the three men had been plotting an attack since December.
Griesbaum, citing intelligence gathered by German authorities, said the attacks would have been carried out with "weapons and explosives and be directed against representative buildings and large masses of people."
The details surfaced a day after the three men were arrested in Dusseldorf and Essen.
The raid yesterday was necessary because we had enough intelligence about two of the suspects to put a stop to it, especially after Marrakech.
"The raid yesterday was necessary because we had enough intelligence about two of the suspects to put a stop to it, especially after Marrakech," Griesbaum said, referring to Thursday's bombing of a popular Moroccan cafe that killed at least 15 people.
Griesbaum said the men did not have a concrete target in mind yet. "They were still in the experimental phase in creating the bomb, as we learned after searching the premises."
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