German officials fear that al-Qaida may be planning to stage attacks in their country, which so far has escaped a major attack by Islamic extremists, according to a report. The daily Die Welt said German intelligence services believe al-Qaida has largely recovered its operational capability in the Afghan-Pakistani border region. "The basic decision has been made there to stage attacks in Germany," it quoted Bernhard Falk, the vice president of the Federal Criminal Police Office, as saying.Last September, three people were arrested in the central Sauerland region on suspicion that they were planning attacks on US and other facilities in Germany. Officials have alleged that they formed a cell of the Islamic Jihad Union, a group with ties to al-Qaida. "We have indications that, alongside the plans of the Sauerland attackers, there are with high probability several other lines of planning," Die Welt quoted Falk as saying, without elaborating.
German officials have long said that the country, which has more than 3,000 troops in Afghanistan, is a potential target. They have said that the three people arrested last year - two of them German converts to Islam - attended militant Islamic training camps in Pakistan.