Germany thwarts terror plot: Teenage suspects reportedly planned attacks on churches
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German police cars (file image) / Mike Baumeister via Unsplah (CC0)CNA Newsroom, Apr 12, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).German authorities have reported the arrest of four suspects allegedly planning terror attacks in Germany. According to Bild newspaper, the group intended to target Christians attending church services and police stations with knives and Molotov cocktails.The Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office revealed that the suspects, who are between 15 and 16 years old, were apprehended over the Easter weekend."The suspects are strongly suspected of having planned an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack and of having agreed to commit it," authorities stated, as reported by CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner.The arrests were conducted following an investigation by the Public Prosecutor General's Office and the anti-terror unit, ZenTer NRW. North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Herbert Reul, detailed the case at a press conference in Düsseldorf on Thursday, notin...
German police cars (file image) / Mike Baumeister via Unsplah (CC0)
CNA Newsroom, Apr 12, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
German authorities have reported the arrest of four suspects allegedly planning terror attacks in Germany. According to Bild newspaper, the group intended to target Christians attending church services and police stations with knives and Molotov cocktails.
The Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office revealed that the suspects, who are between 15 and 16 years old, were apprehended over the Easter weekend.
"The suspects are strongly suspected of having planned an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack and of having agreed to commit it," authorities stated, as reported by CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner.
The arrests were conducted following an investigation by the Public Prosecutor General's Office and the anti-terror unit, ZenTer NRW. North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Herbert Reul, detailed the case at a press conference in Düsseldorf on Thursday, noting that the suspected terror plans were "quickly and purposefully thwarted."
Reul mentioned that it took only five days from the initial findings by German security authorities to the arrest. "We succeeded in preventing worse things from happening," he stated, as quoted by FAZ newspaper.
These arrests are not isolated incidents. In November 2023, two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, were arrested on suspicion of terrorism. They reportedly sympathized with the Islamic State and were believed to have planned a Christmas market attack using a vehicle, CNA Deutsch reported.
In December and early January, several of Europe's most renowned cathedrals, including those in Cologne and Vienna, were on high alert due to concerns about a planned attack for New Year's Eve. Authorities detained but later released three suspects; the men were reportedly members of the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), the same group linked to the March 25 Moscow concert hall attack.
In July 2023, German police arrested seven members of an alleged Islamist terror cell in the same region. According to public broadcaster ZDF, similar arrests were made simultaneously in the Netherlands. The men of Tajik and Turkmen origin reportedly traveled to Western Europe via Ukraine.
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Pope Francis meets with 300 priests taking part in the World Meeting of Parish Priests on May 2, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaRome Newsroom, May 2, 2024 / 12:41 pm (CNA).Pope Francis published a letter on Thursday addressed to all parish priests in the world with his advice for building a missionary Church in which all the baptized share in the mission of proclaiming the Gospel."Parish communities increasingly need to become places from which the baptized set out as missionary disciples and to which they return, full of joy, in order to share the wonders worked by the Lord through their witness," Pope Francis wrote in the letter published on May 2.The pope presented the letter to 300 priests participating in the Synod on Synodality's "World Meeting of Parish Priests" during an audience at the Vatican, saying that their meeting is "an opportunity to remember in my prayers all of the parish priests in the world to whom I address these words with great affection."P...