German security services foiled a plan by Islamist militants to carry out "massive bomb attacks" against U.S. installations in Germany and arrested the three men behind it, officials said on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the men, two German nationals and one Turk, had been on the verge of launching their attacks after acquiring enough material to make a bomb with explosive power equal to 550 kilograms of TNT.
The men were arrested on Tuesday, the same day Danish police seized eight young Muslims they suspect of plotting a bomb attack and one week before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks on targets in the United States.
"Thanks to the cooperation of federal and local police over several months, we were able to ... prevent massive bomb attacks," Harms told a news conference in Karlsruhe.
German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung described the security threat posed by the suspects as "imminent", while Chancellor Angela Merkel said a "horrible event" had been averted.
"It shows that the terrorist threat here isn't abstract. It's real," she said at a news conference in Berlin with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
Officials could not confirm reports the accused had been targeting Frankfurt international airport and a major U.S. military base in Ramstein, but said they had been seen scouting out U.S. installations such as discos, pubs and airports.
"The apparent motive is hatred of Americans," said Federal Police chief Joerg Ziercke, adding that the explosives could have caused more damage than bombings in Madrid and London which killed 191 and 52 people.
The three belonged to a little known al Qaeda-affiliated Sunni Muslim group with roots in Uzbekistan called "Islamic Jihad Union", officials said. All three are believed to have trained in Pakistan militant camps.
It was unclear whether there was any link between the alleged German and Danish plots, official said.
