German police arrested two men near Frankfurt on terrorism charges Friday, alleging they were involved in a cell that had plotted to blow up U.S. targets in Germany a year ago. Federal prosecutors said the two suspects — a German citizen and a Turkish national — had traveled separately to Pakistan during 2007 in an attempt to receive training at camps operated by the Islamic Jihad Union, a terrorist group allied with al-Qaeda. Authorities said the men had shared bank account information and a debit card with three men arrested in September 2007 on suspicion of planning mass bombing attacks on U.S. targets in Germany. Prosecutors identified the German citizen as Omid S., a 27-year-old of Afghan descent, and said he had received training at a militant camp along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border during the spring and summer of 2007. The Turkish man, identified as 27-year-old Hueseyin O., also traveled to the region last year, prosecutors said. Before he could reach the camp, however, he was detained by Pakistani security forces and forced to return to Germany, according to a statement released by the German federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe. Craig Whitlock reports.
See full-text articles:
