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Denmark and Germany Hold 8, Including Syrians, on Terror Charges

German police officers secure a area during raids in Berlin. (Reuters File Photo)
German police officers secure a area during raids in Berlin. (Reuters File Photo)
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Denmark and Germany Hold 8, Including Syrians, on Terror Charges

German police officers secure a area during raids in Berlin. (Reuters File Photo)
German police officers secure a area during raids in Berlin. (Reuters File Photo)

German and Danish authorities said Thursday they have arrested three Syrian men on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, and later five more terrorism-linked arrests were announced in Denmark.

It was not immediately clear whether all eight arrests were linked.

Klaus Tewes, spokesman for federal prosecutors in the eastern German town of Naumburg, said a warrant was issued for the three men, aged 33, 36 and 40, last weekend on charges of preparing a serious act of violence.

They're alleged to have purchased several kilograms of chemicals in January that could be used to manufacture explosives.

A search of a residence linked to the suspects in the city of Dessau-Rosslau, between Naumburg and Berlin, turned up 10 kilograms of black powder, and fuses.

Two of the suspects were arrested in Denmark, where more chemicals were seized. The third was arrested in Germany near Frankfurt. None of their names were given, The Associated Press reported.

Der Spiegel magazine reported that the three men were brothers, and that one of the two arrested in Denmark had been registered in Dessau. In addition to the chemicals, Spiegel reported that authorities found a homemade flag of ISIS in their search of the residence there.

In a separate statement Thursday afternoon, Danish authorities said that in addition to the two Syrians five more suspects had been arrested since the weekend. Their identities and nationalities were not made public.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said in a statement that all had been taken into custody from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8 on the island of Zealand, where Copenhagen sits.

They are suspected of “having planned one or more terrorist attacks or participated in attempted terrorism," AP quoted the statement as saying.

It was not immediately clear whether all were suspected of involvement in the same alleged terror plot or in different ones.

In a statement, the agency said the seven are suspected “of having acquired ingredients and components for the manufacture of explosives, as well as weapons, or having participated in this.”

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World

ISIS Suspect Killed in Raid Ahead of Ankara NATO Summit

The prosecutor's office had on Tuesday confirmed issuing warrants for 241 people, with anti-terror police arresting 209 people in early morning raids in and around the city. (AFP file)
The prosecutor's office had on Tuesday confirmed issuing warrants for 241 people, with anti-terror police arresting 209 people in early morning raids in and around the city. (AFP file)
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ISIS Suspect Killed in Raid Ahead of Ankara NATO Summit

The prosecutor's office had on Tuesday confirmed issuing warrants for 241 people, with anti-terror police arresting 209 people in early morning raids in and around the city. (AFP file)
The prosecutor's office had on Tuesday confirmed issuing warrants for 241 people, with anti-terror police arresting 209 people in early morning raids in and around the city. (AFP file)

Police shot dead a man suspected of ties to ISIS group militants during a raid on a district near Ankara, security sources told Turkish media Wednesday.

The incident occurred during police raids early Tuesday, two weeks before the July 7-8 NATO summit in the capital Ankara that world leaders from 32 nations, among them US President Donald Trump, will attend.

The shooting happened in Sazagasi, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the capital, during a simultaneous operations that saw police arresting more than 200 people, the DHA and IHA news agencies reported.

The suspect, M.K., was shot dead when a police special force unit raided an address where he was staying with his wife N.K.

IHA news agency said the pair had opened fire first on police, prompting a shootout.

"The police carried out an operation here, but I don't know who the suspects are supposed to be linked to," local neighborhood leader Nuri Demir told AFP by phone.

"We saw ambulances transporting wounded, but I don't know anything else," he added.

Contacted by AFP, neither Ankara's provincial governorate nor the Ankara public prosecutor's office would make a comment on the incident.

The prosecutor's office had on Tuesday confirmed issuing warrants for 241 people, with anti-terror police arresting 209 people in early morning raids in and around the city.

Of the total number wanted for arrest, 56 were identified as ISIS suspects, while 185 were identified as belonging to several far-left organizations branded terror groups by Ankara.

It was not immediately clear on Wednesday whether police had managed to round up any of the remaining 32 suspects.

World

Australia Spy Chief Warns of Iran Terror Threat

Police officers gather at the scene of a shooting incident at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, December 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Police officers gather at the scene of a shooting incident at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, December 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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Australia Spy Chief Warns of Iran Terror Threat

Police officers gather at the scene of a shooting incident at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, December 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Police officers gather at the scene of a shooting incident at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, December 14, 2025. (Reuters)

An Australian citizen living in Iran who was a senior member of its Revolutionary Guards orchestrated a major antisemitic firebomb attack in Sydney, Australia's spy chief said Wednesday.

Giving an annual threat assessment, Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), said he was also concerned that an Iranian group active in Europe could conduct further attacks or an assassination in Australia.

ASIO has come under scrutiny after 15 people were killed in an antisemitic mass shooting at Bondi Beach in December, with an independent inquiry into antisemitism noting a drop in the share of funding for counter-terrorism investigations.

In his Canberra speech, Burgess defended the agency as it faced "concurrent, cascading, and compounding threats", and revealed details of investigations into two antisemitic firebombings traced to Iran.

An Iran-based Australian citizen orchestrated the 2024 firebombing of a Bondi restaurant, Lewis' Continental Kitchen, in the first major antisemitic attack in Australia, he said.

"This person is a senior agent of the IRGC Quds Force, running its networks around the world," he said, referring to the Guards' foreign operations branch.

A former Australian resident living in Iraq but working for Iran had directed another major firebomb attack, on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, he said. Australia expelled Iran's ambassador last year over the attack.

- State hackers -

An Australian crime figure was arrested in January after pressure from Australian and Iraqi police.

"Iran recruited him through a complex web of Iraqi-based militia groups. Valuing his high wealth and criminal connections, the IRGC protected him and supported his illegal enterprises," Burgess said.

Iran continued to view Australia as a target, and could "conduct or inspire acts of arson, vandalism or even assassinations on Australian soil".

The Bondi Beach attack, allegedly by father-and-son killers, was shocking but not surprising in the context of a deteriorating global and domestic security environment, he said.

There were "misunderstandings" about how ASIO allocates resources, he added.

The number of officers working on counter-terrorism doubled between 2005 and 2025 and the agency was using new tools including artificial intelligence.

ASIO had foiled 31 major terrorism plots since 2014, and its cases had become more complex as people became radicalized in online chat rooms not prayer halls, within weeks, and at a younger age.

Burgess said state hackers had penetrated a critical infrastructure network, and outlined how a particular nation had sought to coerce eight people, including five Australians, to return to their place of birth to silence them.

Foreign spies were seeking to recruit Australians to reveal official secrets about AUKUS, the country's security partnership with Britain and the United States.

"What's more important: the liberty and agency of an individual, countering antisemitism, the availability of critical infrastructure or defending AUKUS? I don't believe we can prioritize the major threats -- you must deal with all of them," he said.

World

France Announces First Ebola Case

Healthcare workers carry on a stretcher a patient suffering from the Ebola virus disease from an ambulance at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Benediction MURHABAZI / AFP)
Healthcare workers carry on a stretcher a patient suffering from the Ebola virus disease from an ambulance at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Benediction MURHABAZI / AFP)
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France Announces First Ebola Case

Healthcare workers carry on a stretcher a patient suffering from the Ebola virus disease from an ambulance at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Benediction MURHABAZI / AFP)
Healthcare workers carry on a stretcher a patient suffering from the Ebola virus disease from an ambulance at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Benediction MURHABAZI / AFP)

France on Wednesday announced its first confirmed case of Ebola identified on its territory, a doctor who had returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The health ministry "confirms today the identification of a first positive case of Ebola virus disease on national territory,” it said. Contacted by AFP, the ministry specified that the case was identified in mainland France.

The ⁠patient is being isolated and authorities are contact tracing, the ministry said ⁠in a statement, adding that the risk for the general European population was low.

Congo's Ebola outbreak, which has infected more than 1,000 people and killed 267, has ⁠had ⁠the largest number of confirmed cases within the first month of any episode of the disease, the World Health Organization has said.