German police announced the arrest of three suspected Islamists suspected of planning an attack on Cologne Cathedral with “a car” on Sunday, December 31st. These arrests followed another arrest that had already taken place in Germany shortly before Christmas for the same reason.
The suspects belong to “groups of Islamist people” who are “currently more active than usual,” said the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul, during a press conference. A Cologne police officer, Frank Wissbaum, spoke of a “network of people from Central Asia”.
According to the authorities, it was a car that was supposed to be used “for the alleged attack plan,” although they did not know how it would be carried out. The underground car park of Cologne Cathedral was examined with explosives detection dogs, but nothing suspicious was found. Police also increased security measures around the building for New Year's Eve.
Three suspects were arrested in Austria
It was the arrest of a Tajik citizen near Cologne shortly before Christmas who was already suspected of wanting to attack the cathedral, which led investigators to arrest further members of the suspected Islamist network and to flesh out the attack plan under discussion. At the same time, the Austrian police also announced the arrest of three other suspects in Vienna.
According to German media, the suspected members of this network are Tajiks who act on behalf of the “Islamic State-Khorasan” (EI-K) organization, a regional branch of IS that is particularly active in Afghanistan. According to German media, this network planned to attack religious buildings during the year-end holidays, Christmas or New Year celebrations in Cologne, Vienna and even Madrid.
Germany has been on guard against the threat of Islamist attacks for several weeks, especially since the start of the war against Israel and Hamas. At the end of 2016, twelve people were killed in an Islamist truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.
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