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Germany charges suspected IS member over alleged terror attacks

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Germany charges suspected IS member over alleged terror attacks

German federal prosecutors said Wednesday they were investigating an alleged member of the Islamic State terrorist group suspected of a series of acid and arson attacks, and of planning killings with a gun and explosives.

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The suspect, named only as Muharrem D., faces charges of attempted murder against 27 people by arson, and of grievous bodily harm against six, as well as planning "a serious violent act endangering the state".

Beginning in mid-April, Muharrem is believed to have committed a series of violent crimes against Turkish-owned businesses and a mosque in Waldkraiburg, a small town near Germany's border with Austria.

Investigators say he also secured a pistol with ammunition as well as "significant amounts" of bomb-making equipment for planned attacks on nearby mosques, the Turkish consulate in Munich and a major mosque in the western city of Cologne.

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He manufactured 23 pipe bombs and 34 kilogrammes of explosives.

Investigators said in a statement that German citizen Muharrem "underwent a radicalisation process from 2017 onwards, becoming a follower of an Islamist-jihadist worldview as well as the 'Islamic State' (IS) terror group."

Turkish intervention in the Syria conflict and other actions by Ankara were the basis for an "enduring hatred of the Turkish state and people of Turkish origin," prosecutors said, adding that he aimed "to bring about a spiral of violence and retaliation" with his attacks.

People with ties to IS have committed several violent attacks in Germany in recent years, with the worst a ramming attack at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12.

READ ALSO: Berlin remembers victims of Christmas market terror attack three years on

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