Six Syrians suspected of ‘copycat’ market terror plot released

Six alleged Islamic State (Daesh) fighters arrested on suspicion of plotting a repeat of last year’s terror attack on a Christmas market in Germany have been freed through lack of evidence. The suspects, aged 20 to 28, were detained in dawn raids on Tuesday (November 21) that saw 500 police officers search residences in the cities of Kassel, Essen, Hanover and Leipzig. But the Frankfurt public prosecutor said there was “insufficient evidence” they were preparing an attack, or were in any way linked to Daesh. The six Syrians arrived between December 2014 and September 2015 at the height of a refugee crisis which has seen Germany take in 1.2 million people in two years. German law enforcement and security agencies have been on heightened alert ahead of the December 19 anniversary of the lorry attack in Berlin that killed 12 people and injured 56 others. Anti-terror concrete barriers have been installed at markets across Germany – as they have in the UK’s larger cities. Earlier this year, a man who had had an asylum claim rejected by Germany stabbed one person to death at a supermarket and injured six others in a suspected jihadist assault. And last month German authorities arrested a 19-year-old Syrian suspected of preparing a “serious” Daesh-motivated bomb attack.