Members of a German motorcycle gang have travelled to Syria to join Kurds fighting against Islamic extremists (Isis), raising the prospect of Germans fighting Germans in Syria and Iraq.
A Munich man and woman have been arrested in Austria on charges of joining jihadist groups fighting in Syria, where they had travelled with the woman's young son, officials said on Thursday.
An Islamist from central Germany managed to travel to Syria to join jihadists despite being monitored by security services with an electronic tag, according to reports on Tuesday.
UPDATE: Germany’s Green Party wants to see German troops on the ground fighting Isis in the Middle East as part of a UN mission – something the Foreign Minister ruled out on Monday. It comes as Isis claim a German was among the suicide bombers who attacked Kurds on Sunday.
UPDATE: Violence between Islamists and Kurds on Germany's streets this week has prompted some conservative politicians to call for a ban on demonstrations, amid fears further planned protests will get out of control.
Germany and France on Thursday pressed for urgent reforms to the European Union's visa-free Schengen travel zone to counter the increasing number of Europeans leaving to wage jihad in Iraq and Syria.
Almost 1,300 police officers were deployed in Hamburg on Wednesday night to prevent violence re-erupting between local Kurds and Muslim fundamentalists. One person was injured in a fight.
UPDATE: Police had to separate around 800 Kurds and Islamists in Hamburg last night when street battles broke out between the two groups over the Middle East crisis. Demonstrators came armed with metal bars and machetes and 14 people were injured.
On a dusty firing range outside the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Irbil, peshmerga fighter Ardalan Aziz Hamad hefts his new German-made assault rifle and is clearly impressed.
Berlin-based SoundCloud, which allows anyone to share audio files online, plays host to huge numbers of jihadi accounts and postings supporting the Islamic State (Isis). But the uploads do not contravene German law and are not being caught by the startup's moderators.
The coalition government is considering plans to stop potential terrorists travelling to Iraq and Syria to join Islamic fundamentalist fighters by marking their identity cards.
Germany's defence minister Ursula von der Leyen made a surprise trip to Iraq on Thursday, hours after the Bundeswehr started its first delivery of weapons to Kurds fighting the Islamic State (Isis).
Germany’s pledge to help with the international mission against Islamic extremists Islamic State (Isis) got off to another false start on Wednesday when a transport plane carrying arms to Iraq was hit once again with a fault.
Germany is the most popular destination in the EU for those fleeing the brutal onslaught in Syria. The country’s interior minister wants other European countries to take in more refugees, but some groups think Germany should do more.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday said Germany would not be involved in air strikes or any ground offensive in the fight against Islamic State (Isis) jihadists in Iraq.
Military trainers flew to northern Iraq from Germany on Friday, ahead of a huge delivery of weapons from the German military, but things didn’t initially go as planned.
UPDATE: An alleged German jihadist went on trial on Monday accused of fighting for the Islamic State in Syria group, amid calls for tougher action to prevent attacks in Europe by the militants.
Berlin is preparing to send around 40 soldiers to northern Iraq to train Kurdish fighters battling against militants from the Islamic State, the German army said on Saturday.
UPDATE: Germany on Friday officially banned Islamic terror group Isis from any activities in the country, warning that the jihadists, who have captured swathes of Iraq and Syria, also posed a threat to Europe.
