Netherlands, German police thwart Dutch 'terror plot'

The Dutch public prosecutor's office opened an investigation on Saturday into a suspected terror plot in the Netherlands. The counterterrorism Special Intervention Service (DSI) and police initially arrested four people in Rotterdam who were suspected of plotting a "terrorist crime," police said.

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Police in the western German city of Mainz later detained a fifth suspect, a 26-year-old Syrian man with no prior criminal record, after searching the apartment where he was found. Police said they sought the suspect's arrest after receiving an extradition request from Dutch authorities.

"He is strongly suspected of taking part in the preparation for an attack in the Netherlands," police said.

Dutch officers carried out searches at the locations where the four suspects were detained, according to police. Details of any evidence seized were not given and no further information on the suspects was provided by authorities.

"Investigations will continue in the coming days, with the emphasis on further investigation of the nature and scale of the terrorist threat."

Police in both countries did not immediately reveal details of the alleged planned attack.

Police in Leipzig arrested 22-year-old Syrian refugee Jaber al-Bakr after a two-day manhunt following the discovery of explosives and other bomb-making equipment at his apartment in Chemnitz. He was suspected of plotting to attack a Berlin airport. Two days later, he hanged himself in his prison cell.

In September, Dutch police said they foiled a "major terrorist attack" on civilians, with seven people from one terror cell arrested in Arnhem near the German border. Investigators said they found a large quantity of bomb-making materials, including fertilizer likely to be used in a car bomb, following the arrests.

At the end of August, police in Amsterdam's central station shot a 19-year-old Afghan man, Jawed S., after he stabbed two American tourists. City officials said the teen, who had a German residence permit, had a "terrorist" motive.

In June, two terror suspects aged 22 and 28 were arrested for planning to carry out attacks including at an iconic bridge in Rotterdam and in France, prosecutors said.

The last major attack in the Netherlands was the killing by a Muslim radical of Dutch anti-Islam film director Theo van Gogh. The great-grandnephew of the famous painter was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 in Amsterdam by a man with ties to a Dutch Islamist terror network.