German police have arrested a Libyan suspected of links to the Islamic State group and of having planned an attack on the Israeli embassy, federal prosecutors told AFP Saturday.
The Bild daily reported that police commandos had stormed a flat in Bernau north of Berlin in the evening and taken the 28-year-old man into custody.
The newspaper said German authorities had acted on a tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency, and that the man had not been on any militant watchlist in Germany.
"There is some suggestion he had planned an attack on the Israeli embassy in Berlin," said a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, adding that the suspect was also thought to be affiliated with the Islamic State group.
The Spiegel daily said the man was identified only as Omar A., and that he would face a judge on Sunday.
Israel's ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, thanked German authorities for "ensuring the security of our embassy" in a message on the social media platform X.
"Muslim anti-Semitism is not limited to hateful rhetoric, but fuels global terrorism," he wrote. "Israeli embassy staff are particularly at risk because they are on the frontlines of diplomacy."
Attacks targeted the Israeli embassies in Copenhagen and Stockholm in early October.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the Gaza war, German authorities have increased their vigilance against Islamist militant threats and the resurgence of anti-Semitism, like many countries around the world.
In early September, Munich police shot dead a young Austrian man known for his links to radical Islamism after he opened fire at the Israeli consulate and on police.
More than 3,200 crimes motivated by anti-semitism have been recorded by police in Germany this year as of early October, roughly double the figure for the same period last year.
Bild said that in Saturday's operation, a second flat was searched and witnesses questioned at an apartment block in Sankt Augustin near the western city of Bonn.
The flat belonged to the suspect's uncle, who was not detained and was treated as a witness, it said.
It was believed the alleged IS follower may have planned to head there after the attack before fleeing the country.
Bild said the Libyan man was thought to have entered Germany in November 2022 and to have made a request for asylum the following January, which was rejected in September 2023.
With AFP
Comments