This fight will not go away. In Iraq tomorrow or Out of Iraq Tomorrow. Islamic Fundamentalist MUST me routed out and stopped.
BERLIN -- A senior State Department official said German investigators have determined that the Frankfurt International Airport and the nearby U.S. Ramstein Air Base were the primary targets of a plot by three suspected Islamic terrorists.
The State Department official said those arrested may have also been planning strikes on other sites, particularly facilities associated with the United States.
The official says the threat had been a major reason the U.S. Embassy in Berlin had boosted security and issued two warnings in April and May about possible impending terrorist attacks.
A judge has ordered that three suspects accused of plotting massive bomb attacks on U.S. facilities in Germany be held pending trial.
Prosecutors said the three suspected Islamic terrorists are from an al-Qaida-influenced group that had "profound hatred" of U.S. citizens.
Prosecutors said the three, two of whom are German converts to Islam, had trained at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, a group based in Central Asia. They said they had obtained some 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives.
German defense minister Franz Josef Jung told German broadcaster ARD that there was an "imminent threat."
A German public broadcast station said the suspects were picked up Tuesday night and were close to carrying out attacks.
A spokesman for the National Security Council said President George W. Bush has been briefed on the arrests and that he's "pleased a potential attack was thwarted."
Ramstein serves as a major transport hub for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the Germany-based U.S. European Command said it has been notified but doesn't have any information on the specific nature of the plot.
Authorities had apparently been keeping an eye on them since they were spotted observing a U.S. military facility last year.
The head of Germany's Federal Crime Office said the bombs could have been more powerful than the bombs that killed scores of people in London and Madrid.
As for the timing, one German lawmaker notes next Tuesday is the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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