5 Arrested in Germany for Allegedly Plotting Christmas Market Attack, Authorities Suspect “Islamist Motive”
The attack on Christians and Jews continues to expand during the holy holiday season.
The BBC reports that five men have been arrested in Germany and are suspected of plotting to drive a vehicle into people at a Christmas market, with authorities citing an “Islamist motive” behind the plot.
Police note that the group was already in the midst of operational planning with a goal of maximum carnage.
Bavaria’s state interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, told Bild the “excellent cooperation between our security services” helped to prevent “a potentially Islamist-motivated attack”.
Although authorities did not say when or where the planned attack was supposed to take place, they believed it to be one in the Dingolfing-Landau area, north east of Munich.
Three Moroccans, an Egyptian and a Syrian were detained on Friday over the plan to target a market in the southern Bavarian state. Authorities said they suspected an “Islamist motive”.
Prosecutors said the Egyptian – a 56-year-old – was alleged to have “called for a vehicle attack… with the aim of killing or injuring as many people as possible”. The Moroccans allegedly agreed to carry out the attack.
German newspaper Bild reported the Egyptian man was an imam at a mosque in the area.
Police said the Moroccan men – aged 30, 28 and 22 – were arrested accused of having agreed to commit murder, while the Syrian man, a 37-year-old, was accused of encouraging the suspects “in their decision to commit the crime”.
On December 6, at least ten people were killed and 19 others injured after a car rammed into the Christmas Market in Guadaloupe.