German authorities on Tuesday announced that they had arrested a man in the city of Duisburg on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.
Multiple reports identified the suspect as “Tarik S.,” a 29-year-old German-Egyptian national who previous traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State in 2013, according to the AFP and Times of Israel. He returned to Germany in 2016 and received a five-year prison sentence for joining the terrorist group.
German officials stated that any planned attack remains under investigation, though the German outlet Bild reported that the individual expressed a desire to die by martyrdom on social media. He was allegedly planning to attack a planned pro-Israel rally in northwestern Germany by plowing a truck into the crowd.
Der Spiegel, moreover, stated that the arrest followed Germany’s receipt of foreign intelligence about the suspect, including his prior searches for pro-Israel demonstrations and jihadist content.
The arrest comes amid mounting fears across the continent of terrorist attacks and political violence in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas raid on Israel, which has since prompted large-scale demonstrations on both sides across multiple continents.
Israel has maintained a bombardment of the Gaza Strip in preparation for a possible land invasion and the conflict has already resulted in cross-border exchanges between Israel and its neighbors to the north, Lebanon and Syria.
The White House on Tuesday confirmed it was exploring “contingencies,” including “evacuations” for Americans should the conflict erupt into a wider war.
German police arrest man on suspicion of planning terrorist attack | Just The News