Germany foils 'massive' attack on US citizens

KARLSRUHE (Germany): Germany on Wednesday said it had foiled a 'massive' attack with the arrest of three Islamic extremists who were targetting airports, as well as bars and discotheques used by Americans.

"They were planning massive attacks," Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms said.

"As possible targets, the suspects named discotheques and pubs and airports frequented by Americans with a view to detonating explosives loaded in cars and killing or injuring many people," Harms said.

The men, two Germans and a Turk aged 22, 28 and 29, had amassed vast amounts of hydrogen peroxide, the same chemical used by suicide bombers in the 2005 attacks on London's transport system which killed 56 people, Harms said.

The chemicals had been stockpiled in a town in the Black Forest.

Arrested on Tuesday, the men allegedly belonged to an organisation with ties to Al-Qaeda called Islamic Jihad Union, which German authorities have suspected for several months of planning attacks.

One of the three suspects was arrested for spying on a US military base in December but was released soon afterwards, federal police chief Joerg Ziercke said.

All three of the men had attended a training camp in Pakistan in 2006.

There was no confirmation of media reports that the men had been specifically targeting Frankfurt airport and the giant US military base in Ramstein.

The mayor of Medebach-Oberschledorn, the town where the suspects were arrested, said one of them had been shot by police, although this was not confirmed by prosecutors.