Four minors have been arrested in western Germany on suspicion of planning "an Islamist attack" The four, three boys and a girl, aged between 15 and 16, are "strongly suspected of planning an Islamic terrorist attack" Security sources cited by the Dpa agency report that some teenagers exchanged information on their terrorist plans via a group chat. Possible attacks in Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Cologne were discussed, contemplating the use of knives and Molotov cocktails against people in churches or police officers in stations.
The father of one of the suspects was already known for collecting donations for ISIS. In Germany, Islamist influencers are particularly targeting young people, including girls, who probably do not have full awareness of the atrocities committed by ISIS in Syria and Iraq until 2015 due to their young age. The arrest warrants concern the first three young people and a 15-year-old boy from North Rhine-Westphalia (north-west), suspected of having "planned a terrorist attack with Islamist motivations and of having admitted to be prepared to commit it"