Thaindian News

BERLIN (BNO NEWS) — Authorities have launched a large-scale search in Berlin for two suspected terrorists who are allegedly planning to carry out suicide bombings in the German capital, according to news reports on Saturday.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people close to the investigation, said the suspected Islamic extremists are believed to be planning an attack on a prominent location in Berlin in the coming weeks. It comes amid a series of warnings that terrorists are planning to attack Germany.

Last week, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that police and other authorities would step up security at airports and railway stations because of evidence that terrorists are planning to attack the European nation. “Measures will be taken throughout Germany at points that we believe are particularly worth of protection,” De Maiziere told a news conference in Berlin.

De Maiziere said that the indications about an attack are concrete, but said that it cannot push Germans to completely change their public lives. “International terrorism aims to spread fear in our country. This we will not allow,” he said. “We ask all citizens to continue living their lives as before, without fear, in peaceful cooperation with one another and heightened vigilance for one another.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, two men arrived in the German capital about six weeks ago from the Waziristan region of Pakistan. They are said to be trying to avoid detection by wearing western clothes, avoiding mosques, and changing their hideouts regularly.

The Journal further said that the two suspected would-be suicide bombers are waiting for a shipment of bomb detonators that may be transported from Turkey to Berlin by unwitting friends or relatives.

The Journal said German authorities have also received indications that another group of terrorists is planning to travel from Waziristan via the United Arab Emirates to Germany in the coming weeks. They are believed to be planning a small-arms attack on one or more urban centers in Germany by the end of February.

The report said the cities Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich have been named as possible sites for an attack, which would be modeled on the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai which left more than 160 people killed.

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the German parliament, also known as the Reichstag parliament building, is believed to be the target of the attack. It said authorities have received the information from a Jihadist who wanted to get help for his family in exchange for information.