German Police Arrest Three Islamist Terror Suspects (Update4)

Germany faces a higher threat from terrorism because of its military involvement in Afghanistan, the government said in June. Germany has deployed more than 3,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of North Atlantic Treaty Organization efforts to combat Taliban insurgents. The Ramstein base serves as headquarters for the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and is also a NATO installation, according to the base's Web site.

``This is a home-grown problem, it's no longer jihadists trained in Osama bin Laden's camps,'' said Karl-Heinz Kamp, security policy coordinator at the Berlin-based Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which has links to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.

``The good news is that our preventive mechanisms have become very efficient -- this plot was still in its very early stages,'' Kamp said in an interview.

Police secured explosives during the arrests, SWR said. The leader is a German convert to Islam living in the southwestern city of Ulm, the radio station said.

The incident may be connected to arrests by Danish police of eight ``militant Islamists'' yesterday, the HR public radio station said, without saying where it got the information.

The eight men are alleged to have al-Qaeda links and were suspected of plotting a ``major'' attack, the Danish intelligence service said yesterday.

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