The German police has conducted a large-scale anti-terror raid against an Islamist network allegedly linked to the ISIS terrorist group.
“Some 1,100 German police officers conducted surprise raids on 54 flats, mosques, and industrial facilities in a large-scale operation that nabbed 16 terrorist suspects on Wednesday, including a recruiter and human trafficker linked to Islamic State [ISIS],” the Russian state-run news agency reported.
Sixteen suspects were detained in several cities, including Frankfurt, Offenbach, and Darmstadt. They were part of a “widespread Salafist network” said to have been planning a terror attack, according to Hesse’s interior minister, Peter Beuth.
A 36-year-old Tunisian citizen suspected of being the network’s leader was also arrested. He is suspected of being a recruiter and human trafficker for ISIS.
“The 36-year-old is suspected of recruiting for Islamic State [ISIS] in Germany since August 2015 and building up a network of supporters with the aim of carrying out a terrorist attack, the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said in statement,” Reuters reported, adding that “The man arrested on Wednesday had lived in Germany between 2003 and 2013 and then re-entered the country as an asylum seeker in August 2015, five months after militant gunmen stormed the Bardo Museum in Tunis and killed 21 foreign tourists.”
