Islamist Attack Averted, German Officials Say

On Friday, December 10th, German security officials issued a statement that a planned Islamist attack had been foiled over the summer. A man who had been trying to buy weapons and make explosives had been arrested in the northern city of Hamburg, according to an Associated Press report. 

Hamburg’s top security official, Andy Grote, described the incident as “very, very serious.” The suspect, a 20-year-old German-Moroccan citizen, name undisclosed, was taken into custody in August. A judge ordered him to be kept in detention on suspicion of breaking firearms laws and for indications of planned terrorist activity in the future. 

Islamist propaganda videos and bomb-making instructions were found during a search of the suspect’s parents’ apartment. Further evidence revealed that the man wasn’t working alone, confirmed during a separate search at a cousin’s home elsewhere in Hamburg last month. Substances used to make explosives and other tools which could be used for that purpose were found on the premises. 

The man’s father was a once prominent figure at Hamburg’s al-Quds Mosque, the location where some of the plotters of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US had met.