German special forces arrest three terror suspects

BERLIN, April 13 (Xinhua) -- German special forces have arrested three terror suspects in the state of Saarland, state security and judicial authorities confirmed on Friday.

The chief public prosecution office of the city of Koblenz and Saarland police headquarters told the press that three Syrian nationals aged 21, 23 and 27 had been taken into custody as potential terrorist threats.

Two of the individuals are accused of being members of the Islamic State in Syria while the third is suspected of trying to recruit new German-based members for Ahrar al-Sham, another Syrian Islamist group.

Security and judicial authorities noted, however, that there was no concrete evidence to suggest that the men detained were actually planning any attacks in Germany or Europe. The Koblenz chief public prosecutor Juergen Brauer further clarified that the suspects were arrested independent of each other and had no prior connections.

The group could consequently not be described as a "terrorist cell," Brauer emphasized. All three detainees came to Germany in 2015 following the outbreak of civil war in their native Syria. Having applied for asylum, they were randomly allocated to the same refugee shelter.

Security authorities were alerted to the alleged extremist activity by a former employee of the refugee shelter in question. Formal investigations into the cases were launched from October 2017 onwards. Enditem