US military steps up security at German base after threat
TRIER, Germany (AFP) — The US military and German police mounted an extensive security operation around a US airbase on Tuesday following an anonymous bomb threat but police said they believed it was a hoax.
Police in the western city of Trier near the Spangdahlem base said they had stepped up security as "a preventative measure" on the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"At no point was there a real danger to people or property in the vicinity of Spangdahlem," police said.
The police said the base, where 5,000 Americans and 800 Germans are stationed, received a telephone threat from a man with a strong accent at around 1730 GMT on Monday.
"The man, who spoke in German with an accent that could have been Turkish or Russian, threatened to attack the Spangdahlem base with at least four accomplices. During the call, there was mention of 'bombs'," a police spokesman said.
"The US armed forces immediately informed the police, who immediately put protective measures in place at the base, with the cooperation of the US security forces."
The threat came less than a week after German authorities said they had foiled an Islamist plot to blow up airports and US installations in Germany with bombs similar to those that caused carnage on public transport in London in 2005.
There was speculation that the three arrested men -- two German converts to Islam and a Turk -- had been planning attacks to coincide with the September 11 anniversary.
The US military confirmed that it had stepped up security at Spangdahlem.
"While we have no additional information to validate a direct attack against Spangdahlem, we take every threat seriously," a spokeswoman, Sergeant Andrea Knudson, told AFP.
"The 52 Fighter Wing has received a threat against its assets and specifically against Spangdahlem airbase. The threat came on Monday via telephone.
"The security of the base and its people, military and civilian, is critical and we are taking measures to ensure they are protected," she added.
Prior warnings by telephone have not been known to have been given in Islamist attacks in recent years.
German authorities said they had foiled a "massive" attack with the three arrests last week.
The three men were seized at a rented holiday home in the Sauerland region in western Germany where they had stockpiled 12 barrels of hydrogen peroxide which they intended to use to make car bombs, federal prosecutors said.
German media reported that the three-man cell had received orders from contacts in Pakistan at the end of August to carry out attacks by mid-September.
Der Spiegel magazine said the suspected plot leader, 28-year-old Fritz Gelowicz, had received a phone call from a member of the Islamic Jihad Union, a radical group linked to Al-Qaeda, and was given a two-week deadline to carry out an attack.
