German police arrest Syrian on suspicion of planning bomb attack
German police have arrested a Syrian national on suspicion of planning a bomb attack in the country.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested during an overnight operation in the city of Leipzig early on Monday following a two-day massive manhunt.
The man is identified as Jaber Akbar, a Syrian refugee who had escaped the authorities during a raid of his apartment in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday.
Police had found several hundred grams of an “explosive substance” in the apartment.
Local media reported that the material was TATP, the homemade explosive that was used by terrorists in the deadly November 13 attacks in Paris and the March 22 attacks in Brussels.
According to security sources, the suspect was thought to have planned an attack against either one of Berlin’s two airports or a transport hub in his home state of Saxony.
Albakr is reportedly believed to be connected to extremist groups.
Last month, German police arrested three foreign nationals on suspicion of being sent to the European country by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group to conduct terrorist attacks or recruit new members.
The trio was arrested in the state of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany.
Daesh has recently claimed a number of attacks on German soil.
The Takfiri group has vowed more assaults against civilians and security forces in Germany over the country’s contribution to the US-led coalition purportedly targeting its positions in Iraq and Syria.
On July 24, a 27-year-old Syrian killed himself and injured 15 people outside a café in the city of Ansbach in Bavaria in southern Germany.
Daesh claimed the attack, saying the Syrian man was a recruit.
The Takfiri group also claimed an attack in July on four passengers on a regional train in Bavaria. The teenage attacker used an axe and a knife.
Germany was further rattled on July 22, when a teenager opened fire at people shopping at a mall in the city of Munich in the south, killing nine and injuring more than 35 others. Officials ruled out that the case was a terrorism issue.
