Four Syrian men have been detained in relation to an arson attack on a Turkish mosque in the southern German city of Ulm last week, authorities said Thursday.

The men, who were arrested Wednesday, are under investigation for attempted murder and attempted serious arson, Ulm police and the Stuttgart prosecutor's office said.

One of the accused has confessed to involvement in the crime, the authorities said, adding that the attack may have been politically motivated.

The investigators declined to comment as to whether the crime was committed as an act of protest against Turkey's Operation Olive Branch to clear PKK-linked People's Protection Unit (YPG) terrorists from northern Syrian region of Afrin.

Two of the detained suspects are 18 years old; the others are 24 and 27.

According to initial findings, a window on the ground floor of the building, which houses a Turkish mosque association, was hit by a petrol bomb in the early hours of March 19.

Several unused incendiary devices were found at the scene.

The PKK has been banned in Germany since 1993, but it remains active, with nearly 14,000 followers in the country. </s> The attack in the southern city of Ulm on March 19 caused only material damage and the eight people inside the building at the time were unharmed, local police said in a joint statement with Stuttgart prosecutors.

The suspects, aged 18 to 27, were arrested on Wednesday. One of the men has already confessed to the crime, according to the statement.

The 3 am (0100 GMT) attack saw several Molotov cocktails lobbed at the building, one of which started a fire that was quickly put out by police.

Prosecutors said they suspect the attack "may have been politically motivated", but according to DPA news agency they declined to comment on reports that it was an act of retaliation over the Turkish offensive in the Syrian enclave of Afrin.

"The investigation, including into the motive of the Syrians... is ongoing," the statement read.

Several mosques, cultural centres and shops frequented by Germany's Turkish community have been targeted in a string of attacks in recent weeks amid tensions over Turkey's actions against Kurdish militia in Afrin.

The Kurdish Community in Germany group earlier this month sharply condemned the attacks as well as social media calls that were "urging Kurdish youths to employ violence against Turkish institutions".

Germany is home to three million ethnic Turks and hundreds of thousands of Kurds. </s> BERLIN: The German city of Chemnitz was in lockdown Saturday after armed police launched a huge manhunt for a Syrian suspected of planning a bomb attack, as the country grapples with a weakened sense of security following recent terror assaults.

Police, who told people to stay in their homes, named the suspect as 22-year-old Syrian Jaber Albakr. Photographs posted on social media showed armed police clad in black balaclavas and helmets at an apartment building in the eastern city.

Germany has been on edge after suffering two attacks claimed by the Islamic State group (IS) in July — an axe rampage on a train in Wuerzburg that injured five and a suicide bombing in Ansbach that left 15 wounded.

In the latest alert, police in the state of Saxony issued a search warrant for Albakr, saying he was born in Syria in January 1994.

They said Albakr was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and was “suspected of preparing a bomb attack”.

A search of an apartment in Chemnitz detected traces of explosives but failed to capture the suspect or find a bomb, a police spokesman said.

He said police launched Saturday’s operation after receiving information from domestic intelligence services.

“We are carrying out in Chemnitz a large-scale operation due to suspicions that a bomb attack was being prepared,” police said on Twitter, urging residents to stay at home.

“The explosion heard in the area was a police entry measure. The wanted person has not been found,” police added.

The attacks in July rattled Germans’ sense of security and fuelled concerns over the country’s record influx of migrants and refugees last year.

German police said previously they had identified 523 people who posed a security threat to the country, around half of whom were known to be currently in Germany.

On September 21 German officials said a 16-year-old Syrian refugee had been arrested on suspicion of planning a bomb attack in the name of IS.

The youngster, thought to have been radicalised only recently, was detained in a special forces operation at a shelter for asylum-seekers in the western city of Cologne, police and prosecutors said.

Initial information gathered from the teenager’s mobile phone showed that he had expressed an “unmistakeable willingness” to carry out an attack, Klaus-Stephan Becker of the Cologne police told reporters.

A week earlier, German police detained three men with forged Syrian passports accused of being IS militants and labelled a possible “sleeper cell” with links to the assailants behind the November attacks in Paris.

More than 200 police took part in pre-dawn raids in northern Germany to detain the men, suspected of either plotting an attack or awaiting orders to commit one.

German authorities have urged the public not to confuse migrants with “terrorists”, but have acknowledged that more jihadists may have entered the country among the one million asylum-seekers who arrived last year. -AFP </s> BERLIN: Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq detained a 20-year-old Iraqi man on Friday on suspicion of raping and murdering a 14-year-old Jewish girl in Germany, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said.

Seehofer told reporters the Kurdish security forces had taken him into custody early on Friday at the request of the German police, who identified him as Ali Bashar. He had been living in Germany as a refugee since 2015, German media said.

The case has galvanised Germany at a time when its decision to take in large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers during Europe's 2015 migrant crisis is already stirring a political backlash. Many politicians are calling for new rules to make it easier to deport immigrants thought to be violent.

The victim, Susanna Feldman, was Jewish, although police said there was no evidence her religion had been a factor in the crime, and the Central Council of Jews in Germany cautioned against attributing any anti-Semitic motive to her attacker.

"I am pleased to announce a successful manhunt in the case of Susanna F.," Seehofer told reporters after a meeting with state interior ministers.

The teenager, from the city of Mainz near Frankfurt, was reported missing on May 22. She was found dead on Wednesday in a wooded area near train tracks in Wiesbaden on the opposite bank of the Rhine, near a refugee centre where the suspected attacker had lived, police said. An autopsy showed she had been the victim of a sexual and violent attack.

Police told reporters on Thursday that Bashar had likely fled with his family to Erbil, Iraq, several days ago. They said they had set up a special call centre for tips from the public, and had issued releases in Arabic and Turkish.

Joachim Stamp, integration minister in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, called on broadcaster ZDF for a recurring, quarterly migration summit of officials from the federal government, the 16 states and local officials.

Stamp said it was crucial to accelerate the asylum process and to expand the list of countries to which rejected asylum seekers could be deported.

The Iraqi suspect was already under investigation for a suspected robbery. He was appealing a December 2016 decision by German authorities to reject his asylum application.

Germany does not have a general extradition agreement with Iraq but must negotiate such moves on an individual basis, said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr. She declined to comment on the specific case of Bashar. </s> Iraq has extradited a 20-year-old Iraqi suspected of raping and killing a 14-year-old girl in Germany last month, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Saturday.

“I’m glad that the alleged perpetrator wanted by German authorities is back in Germany,” Seehofer said in a statement, adding that the investigation of the case could now be accelerated.

“For the girl’s family, that is only a small consolation, and my thoughts are with them during these difficult hours,” Seehofer said. “But for the state and our society, it is important that crimes are cleared up and suspects are brought to justice.”

Police in the Kurdistan region of Iraq said on Saturday the Iraqi suspect had admitted to the murder of 14-year-old Susanna Feldman in Germany, where the case has stoked the immigration debate.

The Jewish teenager from Mainz near Frankfurt was found dead on Wednesday in a wooded area in Wiesbaden, near a refugee centre where the alleged attacker had lived, German police said.

An autopsy showed she had been the victim of a violent and sexual attack. Police said there was no evidence her religion had been a factor and the Central Council of Jews in Germany cautioned against attributing any anti-Semitic motive.

Kurdish security forces had taken the suspect, identified by German authorities as Ali Bashar, into custody on Friday after he fled from Germany last week.

“Officers in Zakho (in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region) called me and said they had located the suspect and would arrest him as soon as he comes to the city,” Dohuk city police chief Tariq Ahmed told Reuters.

“He had been staying at a hotel in Dohuk and after realising the police were after him left for Zakho to stay at a relative’s house. He was asleep there at night and was arrested in that house at 5:30 (a.m.),” Ahmed said.

He said the suspect had confessed to killing the German teenager during interrogation by Kurdish security authorities.

German media reported earlier that Bashar was expected to be extradited to Germany on Saturday evening and questioned by German investigators on Sunday.

German federal police declined to comment on the details emerging from the suspect’s arrest or on the report on the timing of extradition.

Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her dismay at the crime and said it should be a reminder to Germans of the need to do whatever possible for the integration of immigrants.

“The incredible suffering experienced by the family, the victim, affects everyone, including me,” she said on the sidelines of a G7 summit meeting in Canada.

“The cooperation in this regard between German and Kurdish security authorities worked well here … It is good that the alleged perpetrator was caught, that he probably also will be returning to Germany,” Merkel said.

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She added, “This is a reminder to all of us, first, to take the task of integration very seriously, to make our common values very clear, again and again. But also to punish any crime. We can only live together if we all stick to our laws.”

Merkel’s decision to take in large numbers of asylum seekers during Europe’s 2015 migrant crisis has stirred a political backlash, with many politicians calling for new rules to make it easier to deport immigrants.

Bashar had been living in Germany as a refugee since 2015, German media have reported.

German police set up a special call centre for tips from the public and issued releases in Arabic and Turkish. They said on Thursday that Bashar had likely fled to Erbil in the KRG. </s> Police in Turkey on Sunday arrested at least 448 suspected Islamic State members in nationwide raids. The police operation is the biggest in the country since the attack on an Istanbul nightclub on January 1, in which 39 people were killed, AFP reported. The Islamic State group had said that they had carried out the attack to avenge deaths in Syria at the hands of Turkish military forces.

At least 150 Syrians were among those arrested, with several other people being picked up from regions bordering Syria. Sixty suspects, mostly foreigners, were arrested from four districts in Ankara. Dozens of other arrests were made in the eastern and western provinces of the country. Former Turkish diplomat Sinan Ulgen said the raids represented a change in strategy by the country’s police, who have till now only detained small numbers of suspected militants.

However, the arrests may not lead to any prosecutions, as the country’s efforts against the Islamic State “is still handicapped by discrepancies between the different arms of the Turkish state” Ulgen said, according to The New York Times. Former counterterrorism official Ahmet Yayla also questioned the effectiveness of the raid, saying that it could overwhelm the police’s operational capacity. “It is impossible to process that many terrorists in one operation,” Yayla said.

The attack on the Reina nightclub is the first such incident in Turkey that the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for, even though the group has been blamed for several bombings in 2016. The main suspect in the shooting was arrested on January 17. Abdulkadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national, was arrested from the Esenyurt district in Ankara. The Turkish police had detained 35 people in connection with the incident before arresting Masharipov. </s> Three people have been arrested after German police found several hundred grams of explosives in an apartment they raided in connection with a Syrian man suspected of planning a bomb attack in the eastern city of Chemnitz.

The explosives were “relatively well hidden” in the apartment, which was raided yesterday, said Saxony police spokesman, Tom Bernhardt.

Police are still searching for the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Jaber Albakr, from Damascus.

Two people who knew Albakr have been taken into custody in the Chemnitz train station area, with a third held in Chemnitz centre. The three are being questioned.

The explosives were not considered stable enough to move and they would probably be destroyed in place once other residents in the area have been evacuated, said Bernhardt.

The apartment was raided after local authorities received a tip-off from Germany’s domestic intelligence agency that the suspect might be there, and that he was thought to be planning a bomb attack.

When police knocked down the door, however, no-one was inside.

Saxony police put out an alert, identifying the suspect and urging anyone with any information of his whereabouts to contact authorities. They released a photo of a dark-haired man wearing a hooded sweatshirt.

“We have to assume that he is dangerous,” Bernhardt said. Authorities have not said where they think the suspected attack was going to take place.

The suspect is believed to be connected to Islamic extremist groups. Bernhardt said, however, that police are still trying to determine what his motivation might be.

Authorities released no details about how long the suspect had been in Germany, and Bernhardt said it was unclear whether he had come in the wave of asylum seekers in 2015.

Germany took in 890,000 asylum seekers last year, with Syrians fleeing civil war forming the single largest group.

Neighbours reported hearing an explosion during the raid, but that was the police assault team blowing open the apartment door, said police spokeswoman Kathlen Zink.

Germany has been on edge since two attacks this summer claimed by Islamic State in which several people were injured and both assailants died.

Two other attacks unrelated to Islamic extremism, including a deadly mall shooting in Munich, have also contributed to heightened fears. </s> BAGHDAD/BERLIN - Iraqi police said on Saturday that a 20-year-old Iraqi man had admitted to the rape and murder of 14-year-old Susanna Feldman in Germany, where the case has stoked the immigration debate.



The Jewish teenager from Mainz near Frankfurt was found dead on Wednesday in a wooded area in Wiesbaden, near a refugee center where the alleged attacker had lived, German police said.





An autopsy showed she had been the victim of a sexual and violent attack. Police said there was no evidence her religion had been a factor and the Central Council of Jews in Germany cautioned against attributing any antisemitic motive.German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Friday Kurdish security forces had taken the suspect, identified by German authorities as Ali Bashar, into custody on Friday."I ordered three officers to investigate the case. After seven hours, the officers were able to identify the location of the accused murderer and arrest him," local police chief Tariq Ahmed told Rudaw television.Ahmed said that the suspect had confessed to raping and killing the German teenager during interrogation by Kurdish security authorities. German Bild newspaper reported that Bashar and Feldman argued before he attacked and killed her.German newspaper Wiesbadener Kurier reported that Bashar was expected to be extradited to Germany on Saturday. A spokesman for Germany's federal police declined to comment on the report.Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to take in large numbers of asylum seekers during Europe's 2015 migrant crisis has stirred a political backlash, with many politicians calling for new rules to make it easier to deport immigrants.Bashar had been living in Germany as a refugee since 2015, German media have reported.Police, who set up a special call center for tips from the public and issued releases in Arabic and Turkish, told reporters on Thursday that Bashar had likely fled to Erbil in Iraq. </s> MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian police have charged three men with committing terrorist acts on suspicion of starting fires at a Shiite Muslim mosque in Melbourne last year, inspired by Islamic State and intending to divide the Muslim community.

 Two of the men are already in custody and awaiting trial on suspicion of plotting bomb attacks in Australia's second largest city last year, while a third – a 29-year-old Melbourne man – was arrested late on Saturday.

 All three face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment over the arson attack at the Imam Ali Islamic Centre in December 2016.

 Australian Federal Police's counter terrorism national manager said that attacking a place of worship had no place in society.

 “It is clear that these arson attacks were designed to intimidate and influence those that attend this mosque and the wider Islamic community," Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney said on Sunday.

 Australia, a staunch U.S. ally that has sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, has been on heightened alert since 2014 for attacks by home-grown militants returning from fighting in the Middle East, or their supporters.

 While there have been several "lone wolf" attacks, officials say 13 significant plots have been foiled in that time.

 Police say the three men were adherents of militant Sunni Muslim ideology. 

 Police said the arrest of the man on Saturday came after extensive investigations into fires at the Melbourne mosque – but said it did not relate to any direct threat to the community.

 The other two men facing charges are in custody and awaiting trial for allegedly planning militant attacks around Christmas Day 2016 in Melbourne.

 The two, a 25-year-old and a 27-year-old, will also be charged with terrorist offences for causing a previous fire at the Imam Ali Islamic Centre in November 2016.

 The man arrested on Saturday will appear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Sunday, while the other two will appear in court on Monday. 

 This month, two men were charged with terror-related offences after authorities disrupted what they described as an Islamic State-inspired plot to bomb an Etihad Airways flight.

 Another man arrested in relation to the foiled plot was charged with weapons offences and released on bail. A fourth man was released without charge.

 A gunman in a 2014 Sydney cafe siege boasted about links with Islamic State militants, although no direct ties with the group were established. The gunman and two other people were killed in the siege.

 

 (Reporting by Joseph Hinchliffe; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Police in Germany announce that earlier this week they detained four Syrian nationals on suspicion of arson and attempted murder over a Turkish Muslim mosque firebombing in Ulm. Police say the attack "may have been politically motivated".