Germany Arrests 2 Suspected in Terror Plot

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. Craig Whitlock reports.

September 20, 2008

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