Three Syrian nationals suspected of having ties with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) have been arrested after federal police raided refugee camps in northern Germany early on Tuesday, according to prosecutors.
They suspect that the three men, aged between 17 and 26, had been dispatched to Germany in November 2015 “to carry out a mission that they had been informed about or to wait for further instructions” from the terror group.
“Based on the information that the Federal Crime Office has so far been able to obtain, the three are strongly suspected of coming to Germany in November 2015 on orders from Islamic State,” the Federal Prosecutors’ Office was cited as saying.
“Concrete missions or orders have not so far been found in the course of investigations carried out so far,” the news agency reported, citing prosecutors.
One of the suspects, identified as Mahir Al-H., allegedly became a member of IS in September 2015 and received weapons and explosives training in Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital in Syria. In October the same year, he and the two of the other suspects, Mohamed A. and Ibrahim M., also allegedly joined the terrorist group. IS allegedly provided the three with passports, some $1,000 in cash and cell phones with a special communications program. The suspects then allegedly traveled through Turkey and Greece before arriving in Germany in mid-November 2015.
