BERLIN: German authorities arrested three people with alleged ties to a Syrian radical group yesterday in police raids across the country, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
Two of the suspects, a German and a Turk, are believed to have travelled to Syria last year and joined Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which German authorities consider to be a foreign terrorist organisation.
The third person, a woman with dual German-Polish citizenship, was taken into custody on suspicion of providing ¤4,800 ($6,600) to the group.
More than 100 members of the elite police squad GSG 9, the federal police force and state police conducted simultaneous searches of 10 flats in the capital Berlin and the western cities of Bonn and Frankfurt, including the homes of five more suspects.
They are also believed to belong to or support ISIL.
Federal prosecutor Harald Range said that the operation showed “that violent conflicts like the one in Syria have a direct impact on us in Germany”.
Pilots’ strike to ground most Lufthansa flights
FRANKFURT: Lufthansa, Germany’s biggest airline, said yesterday it will be forced to cancel most of its flights later this week, grounding as many as 425,000 passengers, due to a pilots’ strike.
“As a result of the planned strike by the pilots’ union Cockpit, around 3,800 flights will be cancelled tomorrow, Thursday and Friday,” the carrier said in a statement. “A total 425,000 passengers will be affected by the stoppages,” it said.
“During the three-day walkout by Cockpit teams, there will only be around 500 short- and long-haul flights by Lufthansa and Germanwings.”
Lufthansa said it would inform passengers via text message or email about the flight changes.
Most domestic and European flights on the strike days would be operated by Lufthansa Group companies Eurowings, Lufthansa CityLine and Air Dolomiti, whose pilots were not taking part in the strike, the statement said.
Agencies
