Berlin, Sep 13 (EFE).Berlin, Sep 13 (EFE). — Three asylum seekers in Germany were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of planning terror attacks with the Islamic State, announced the State Prosecutor’s Office.
In a statement, the office said the three men, aged 17, 18, and 26, were accused of having entered the country with the intent of carrying out a specific mission or awaiting additional instructions.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said in a press conference that the three men were found to have links to the November Paris attackers that killed 130 people, adding he believed they were potentially part of a sleeper cell.
He said evidence suggested that the men had been brought by the same traffickers as the Paris attackers, and the same sources had created their fake passports.
These links, said de Maizière, could show that the IS is not targeting specific states, but rather the West as a whole; therefore, greater security cooperation was needed between countries.
Though they were not found to have started preparing an attack, he said, police suspected they were waiting for instructions from the IS.
The Prosecutor’s statement said the 17yearold was suspected of having joined the IS in 2015 and likely received training in arms and explosives use.
In October, he joined the other two suspects, and they traveled together to Germany in November 2015 with fake passports, said the Prosecutor.
The three were arrested in the northern region of SchleswigHolstein by special police forces.
