A man suspected of being an Islamic State ‘sleeper agent’ has been arrested in the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg just hours after top security officials warned of the threat of Islamic extremist attacks during Euro 2024.
The Iraqi detainee, Mahmoud A., was taken into custody yesterday in the town of Esslingen on the outskirts of Stuttgart after being arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS.
He arrived in Germany in October 2022, according to investigators, but is believed to have been affiliated with ISIS since 2016. It is unclear how the suspect managed to gain entry to Germany given his history.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the arrest demonstrated Germany’s commitment to cracking down on the Islamist threat, declaring: ‘Our security authorities are extremely vigilant, follow every tip-off and strike hard to protect our country.’
Yesterday’s arrest took place hours before the host nation played Hungary in their second Euro 2024 match in Stuttgart.
It also came just one day after Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV), said that the terror threat has surged amid fury in Arab nations at Berlin’s solidarity with Israel following the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Haldenwang announced that Germany had become a prime target for extremist groups – but also said that the threat from ‘radicalised lone wolves with no clear ties to terrorist organisations’ also posed a significant threat.
Police across the nation have had leave cancelled in a desperate bid to avert disaster, with some 22,000 officers deployed to reinforce border, railway and airport security for the duration of the four-week tournament
Yesterday’s arrest took place hours before the host nation played Hungary in their second Euro 2024 match in Stuttgart (pictured)
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (R) and President of the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, present the Report on the Protection of the Constitution 2023 in Berlin, Germany, 18 June 2024
Police across the nation have had leave cancelled in a desperate bid to avert disaster, with some 22,000 officers deployed to reinforce border, railway and airport security for the duration of the four-week tournament in an unprecedented mobilisation of law enforcement.
Berlin has also been forced to draft in officers from overseas, such is the extent of the security operation, with some 2.7 million supporters expected to pile into stadiums across Germany between now and mid-July – not to mention the millions more watching the football at mass viewing events.
Haldenwang’s warning comes just weeks after a policeman was stabbed to death and several other people were injured by an Afghan knifeman at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim.
On Friday evening, German police in Wolmirstedt, a town close to the capital, shot dead another Afghan attacker who killed a compatriot and wounded three others at a viewing party for the tournament’s opening match.
And at the weekend, German police were forced to shoot an axe-wielding man who was holding a Molotov cocktail at a fanzone in Hamburg.
Riot police are seen ahead of a match in Germany this weekend
Police officers guard a cordoned off area near the Reichstag fan zone amid security concerns
Security personnel pushes back visitors at the entrance to the Fan Zone in Berlin
This is the dramatic moment armed German police close in on an axeman near a Euros fan zone before shooting him
Haldenwang’s warning comes just weeks after a policeman was stabbed to death and several other people were injured by an Afghan knifeman at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim
As part of its reinforced security measures for the Euros, Germany has reinstated strict border checks until mid-July.
That measure was implemented as police arrested a suspected terrorist and ISIS adherent at Cologne-Bonn airport last week.
The suspect, named only as Soufian T, is alleged to have applied to work security on ‘side events’ outside a stadium hosting several Euros matches.
Authorities assessing his job application found he had been deemed a potential Islamist threat by state security services, and had been accused of transferring money to ISIS-K in 2023.
The warning prompted Cologne police to swoop on the German-Moroccan-Polish citizen as he arrived at the airport.
But the heightened security restrictions are by no means impenetrable – as evidence by a German YouTuber who made it onto the pitch ahead of the tournament’s opening match in Munich last week.
Marvin Wildhage was able to reach the edge of the pitch ahead of the tournament opener between the hosts and Scotland despite having a fake ID and no accreditation.
The 27-year-old, who has more than 870,000 subscribers on YouTube and filmed the entire stunt, reportedly got into Munich’s Allianz Arena along with two other men, before disguising himself in a knock-off mascot uniform purchased from a Chinese website.
The vlogger also claimed he rented a black Volkswagen car and stuck fake German Football Association (DFB) logos on it to fool security outside the venue.
Wildhage says that he was eventually apprehended and taken into custody, but not before he was able to stand pitchside having sneaked past a litany of stewards and security measures.
He also previously infiltrated the national team’s public training session in Jena before the tournament.
Wearing training clothes, he stood at the edge of the pitch as the players did passing exercises, before a DFB employee accompanied him to the stands.
Haldenwang presented his warning on Tuesday alongside Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who shared a report that unveiled the country had seen a record number of politically motivated crimes committed last year.
Authorities registered 60,028 politically motivated offences in 2023, up from 58,916 the previous year, the report said, adding that around 25,660 of the crimes were committed by right-wing extremists, an increase of 22.4 percent from 2022.
Faeser pointed out that many of the crimes were fuelled by global events including the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
A pitch invader is tackled by security during a Group E match between Belgium and Slovakia at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, June 17, 2024
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (R) and President of the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, present the Report on the Protection of the Constitution 2023 in Berlin, Germany, 18 June 2024
Marvin Wildhage was able to reach the edge of the pitch ahead of the European Championship’s opening match, German media reports
Footage appears to show the YouTuber dressed as a bear wandering out to the edge of the pitch
Video shows Wildhage smuggling himself into the arena in the official-looking car he rented, speaking with stewards on the way before changing into the Albärt the bear costume
A man dressed in black wields an axe and holds a firebomb near the Reppenbahm, in Hamburg, as he bellows at officers who are standing behind a barrier
An Afghan knifeman is seen launching a fatal knife attack on police and anti-Islam protesters in May
‘Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, right-wing extremists have used the resulting economic upheaval… in political campaigns and calls for mobilisation,’ the report said.
Crimes committed by left-wing extremists rose by 10.4 percent, though their number was much smaller at 4,248.
There was also a surge in anti-Semitic crimes, which jumped to 492 from just 33 the previous year.
The vast majority of these were committed after October 7, 2023, when an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel triggered a relentless Israeli military offensive on Gaza.
‘The terrible escalation in the Middle East following the terror against Israel is unfortunately also having an impact on us,’ Faeser said when she presented the report.
Germany is also seeing an increased security threat from foreign powers in the form of spying, sabotage, disinformation and cyberattacks.
‘Russia, China and Iran in particular are using their intelligence services extensively for espionage against Germany,’ she said.
Faeser singled out ‘massive hybrid threats’ from Russia as the biggest external danger for Germany.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and the opposition conservatives have both recently been targeted by cyberattacks blamed on Russia.
German prosecutors have also launched an investigation into how a secret army conversation on the Ukraine war was wiretapped and ended up on Russian social media.
In April, two German-Russian men were arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia and planning attacks in Germany – including on US army targets – to undermine military support for Ukraine.