BERLIN
\nPolice have detained two girls and two boys \u2014 all teenagers \u2014 in western Germany on suspicion that they were planning an Islamist attack, prosecutors said on Friday.
\nThree arrested in North Rhine-Westphalia state are \u201cstrongly suspected of planning an Islamist-motivated terror attack and of having committed to carrying it out,\u201d Duesseldorf prosecutors said in a statement.
\nThe trio, aged 15 to 16, had also \u201ccommitted to carrying out a crime \u2014 murder and manslaughter,\u201d Duesseldorf prosecutors added.
\nSeparately, prosecutors in Stuttgart said a 16-year-old suspect is in custody on \u201csuspicion that he was preparing a serious crime endangering the state.\u201d
\nInvestigators did not provide further details on the alleged plot, saying the inquiry was still under way.
\nBut Germany\u2019s biggest-selling daily Bild reported that the four youths were allegedly planning to carry out Molotov cocktail and knife attacks in the name of the Daesh group.
\nTheir targets are believed to have been Christians and police officers, according to the report, which said the suspects were also weighing whether to obtain firearms.
\nGermany has been on high alert for Islamist attacks since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October, with the country\u2019s domestic intelligence chief warning that the risk of such assaults is \u201creal and higher than it has been for a long time.\u201d
\nThe country is also particularly nervous about security breaches as it prepares to host the European football championships from mid-June to mid-July.
\nPolice had already foiled a suspected plot earlier this year.
\nInvestigators in January arrested three people over an alleged plan targeting the cathedral in Cologne on New Year\u2019s Eve.
\nBild reported that the suspects were Tajiks acting for Daesh-Khorasan, the same group believed to have been behind March\u2019s deadly massacre in a Moscow concert hall.
\n\u201cThe danger from Islamist terrorism remains acute,\u201d Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at the time, describing the Khorasan offshoot as \u201ccurrently the biggest Islamist threat in Germany.\u201d
\nIslamist extremists have carried out several attacks in Germany in recent years, the deadliest being a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people.
\nMore recently, two Afghans linked to Daesh were arrested in Germany in March on suspicion of planning an attack around Sweden\u2019s parliament in retaliation for Qur\u2019an burnings.
\nIn October, German prosecutors also charged two Syrian brothers for planning an attack inspired by Daesh on a church in Sweden.
\nIn December 2022, a Syrian-born Islamist was jailed for 14 years for a knife attack on a train in Bavaria in which four people were injured.
\nThe number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell from 28,290 in 2021 to 27,480 in 2022, according to a report from the BfV federal domestic intelligence agency.
\nHowever, in presenting the report, Faeser said Islamist extremism \u201cremains dangerous.\u201d
\nGermany became a target for militant groups during its involvement in the coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, and its deployment in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN Police have detained two girls and two boys \u2014 all teenagers \u2014 in western Germany on suspicion that they were planning an Islamist attack, prosecutors said on Friday. Three arrested in North Rhine-Westphalia state are \u201cstrongly suspected of planning an Islamist-motivated terror attack and of having committed to carrying it out,\u201d Duesseldorf prosecutors said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-399818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n