Germany: Domestic spy agency counts 2,000 Islamists as potential terrorists

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution – Germany’s domestic spy agency – has announced that there are at least 2,080 Islamists regarded as potential terrorists living in the country.

Thus, the threat from Islamic terrorism is “still high,” a spokeswoman for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution told The RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). Today’s Salafist scene in Germany is made up of at least 12,150 people, about 1,350 more than were recorded in the summer of 2018.

The agency also warned that, despite the military defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the organization’s underground structures are still intact and Westerners remain the terrorist group’s central enemy.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution also noted that it has knowledge of over 1,060 Islamists from Germany who have made their way to Iraq and Syria in recent years. About a third of them have returned to and are living back in Germany again, while a few hundred are said to be in Iraqi and Syrian prisons. Of those who have returned to Germany, the agency believes that slightly over one hundred of them participated directly in fighting or received military training. These are the individuals who are the main focus of security forces.

In April, German authorities arrested four suspected members of an Islamic State group who are believed to have been planning an attack on American military facilities in the area, as Voice of Europe reported.

Source:
Voice Of Europe