Terror suspects brought vans into Germany

Militant Islamic suspects brought three vans into Germany, but it has yet to be established whether they intended to use them as car bombs in an attack on US and other targets, an official said today.

Petra Kneuer, spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, said that in addition to the three suspects arrested on Tuesday, authorities are investigating seven others.

She said reports that about 50 people overall were believed to be in a wider network inside and outside Germany were “not unrealistic”.

Kneuer was asked about a report in the news weekly Focus that said the three suspects arrested Tuesday had obtained the used vans from France.

“But so far it hasn’t been shown that there really was a link to the planned attacks,” she said.

The three suspects arrested Tuesday included two Germans who had converted to Islam. They have been identified as Fritz Martin Gelowicz, described as the leader of the Islamic Jihad Union terror cell, and Daniel Martin Schneider, 22. The third has been identified as Adem Yilmaz, 29, born in Turkey but living in Germany.

All three of them attended terror training camps in Pakistan last year, officials said.

One of the suspects was seen at the end of last year studying a US military base at Hanau.