Two terrorist-suspects arrested on plane in Germany

[Pieter C. 5]

Two Terrorist Suspects Arrested On Plane In Germany

 

September 26, 2008

German police boarded a Dutch airliner at Cologne Airport on Friday and arrested two men suspected of planning to take part in terrorist attacks, a spokesman said.

 

The police spokesman identified the suspected Islamist militants, on a KLM aircraft about to take off for Amsterdam, as a 23-year-old Somali and a 24-year-old German born in Somalia's capital Mogadishu.

 

"It all went off in quite an unspectacular manner," the spokesman said.

 

Police in the North Rhine-Westphalia district of western Germany said there was no indication the two were about to launch an attack.

 

"German police authorities removed two passengers from the plane... All the passengers had to get out for a check of all the luggage, and they removed the suspects' luggage," said a spokesman for KLM.

 

The flight, KL1804, continued its journey to Amsterdam just over an hour later.

 

Somalia is riven by a civil war pitching Islamist rebels against an Ethiopian-backed government. A large number of Somali refugees have moved to western Europe over 17 years of civil conflict.

 

Unlike Britain and Spain, Germany has not suffered a major recent attack on its own soil but Germans have been fearful since the northern port of Hamburg was used as a base for planning the September 11 attacks on US targets.

 

A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said there were no firm signs of an attack in Germany.

 

"We still believe we are caught in the cross-hairs of terrorism but there are no indications of concrete preparations for an attack," the spokeswoman told a regular government news conference.

 

Last year, police arrested three men in the western Sauerland region. Authorities believe they were targeting US installations in Germany.

 

A spokeswoman for the Federal Crime Office said Friday's arrests were unrelated to a search for two suspected Islamist militants which it had announced on Thursday.

 

(Reuters)

 

Aircraft was PH-KVI, a KLM cityhopper Fokker 50...