Spy chief says IS wants to attack Germany
BERLIN ( Reuters) — Islamic State wants to carry out attacks in Germany and the security situation is “very serious,” the head of the country’s domestic intelligence agency ( BfV) told a newspaper, adding that he knew of no concrete plot to strike.
The militant group released a video on Tuesday suggesting it may carry out further attacks in the West after the Brussels bombings and Paris attacks, naming London, Berlin and Rome as possible targets.
Hans-Georg Maassen told German newspaper Welt am
Sonntag the group wanted to carry out attacks against Germany and German interests, but added: “At the moment we don’t have any knowledge of any concrete terrorist attack plans in Germany.”
He said Islamic State propaganda was aimed at encouraging supporters to take the initiative to stage attacks in Germany.
Maassen said there were several cases linking Germans returning from Syria to attack plans and warned that the danger posed by jihadists from Germany remained “virulent.”
He said the country had avoided a big attack so far thanks to the successful work of security authorities and luck such as a bomb detonator not working properly on one or two occasions.
In 2014, a German man described as a radical Islamist was charged with planting a pipe bomb — which never exploded — at Bonn train station in 2012. In 2006, two suitcase bombs left by Islamist militants on trains in Cologne failed to explode.