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Germany, Netherlands Arrest 9 over Alleged Plan for Attacks in Line with ISIS

The sun rises over the city of Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
The sun rises over the city of Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
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Germany, Netherlands Arrest 9 over Alleged Plan for Attacks in Line with ISIS

The sun rises over the city of Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
The sun rises over the city of Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Nine people from central Asia were arrested in Germany and the Netherlands on Thursday in connection to alleged plans to carry out attacks in Germany in line with ISIS’ ideology, authorities said.

Seven men arrested in Germany are accused of founding a militant group and of supporting ISIS, German federal prosecutors said. All had known each other for a long time, had radical views and came to Germany more or less simultaneously from Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year, they added.

A year ago, the suspects allegedly formed a group that aimed to carry out attacks in Germany. According to prosecutors, the group was in contact with an ISIS offshoot, ISIS Khorasan Province.

Its members had checked out possible targets in Germany and attempted to procure weapons, but “there was no concrete plan for an attack at the time of today's arrest," The Associated Press quoted prosecutors as saying in a statement. All but one of the men arrested in Germany had been collecting money for ISIS since April 2022 and transferring it to the group, they added.

In the Netherlands, the public prosecution service said that a 29-year-old Tajik man and his 31-year-old Kyrgyz wife, who had been living in the country since last year, were arrested on suspicion of committing preparatory acts for attacks. The man is also suspected of membership in ISIS.

Police suspect that the man “was given the order to plot a terrorist attack,” the prosecution service said in a statement. It said the plans were serious enough for prosecutors to intervene, although they were “not yet concrete.” German prosecutors said the man arrested in the Netherlands belonged to the group formed by the other suspects.

The arrests in Germany were made in various locations in North Rhine-Westphalia state, which borders the Netherlands. German prosecutors identified the men arrested there as Turkmen citizen Ata A., Kyrgyz national Abrorjon K., and Tajik citizens Mukhammadshujo A., Nuriddin K., Shamshud N., Said S. and Raboni Z.

Their full names weren't released in line with German privacy rules.

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Iran Could Again Enrich Uranium 'in Matter of Months', Says IAEA Chief

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, listens to the speech of President of the World Bank Group (WBG), Ajay Banga (not pictured), as they sign a partnership on new nuclear energy for development effort at the WBG headquarters in Paris, France, 26 June 2025. (EPA)
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, listens to the speech of President of the World Bank Group (WBG), Ajay Banga (not pictured), as they sign a partnership on new nuclear energy for development effort at the WBG headquarters in Paris, France, 26 June 2025. (EPA)
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Iran Could Again Enrich Uranium 'in Matter of Months', Says IAEA Chief

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, listens to the speech of President of the World Bank Group (WBG), Ajay Banga (not pictured), as they sign a partnership on new nuclear energy for development effort at the WBG headquarters in Paris, France, 26 June 2025. (EPA)
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, listens to the speech of President of the World Bank Group (WBG), Ajay Banga (not pictured), as they sign a partnership on new nuclear energy for development effort at the WBG headquarters in Paris, France, 26 June 2025. (EPA)

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi says Iran likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium "in a matter of months," despite damage to several nuclear facilities from US and Israeli attacks, CBS News said Saturday.

Israel launched a bombing campaign on Iranian nuclear and military sites on June 13, saying it was aimed at keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon -- an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.

The United States subsequently bombed three key facilities used for Tehran's atomic program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the extent of the damage to the nuclear sites is "serious," but the details are unknown. US President Donald Trump insisted Iran's nuclear program had been set back "decades."

But Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said "some is still standing."

"They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that," Grossi said Friday, according to a transcript of the interview released Saturday.

Another key question is whether Iran was able to relocate some or all of its estimated 408.6-kilo (900-pound) stockpile of highly enriched uranium before the attacks.

The uranium in question is enriched to 60 percent -- above levels for civilian usage but still below weapons grade. That material, if further refined, would theoretically be sufficient to produce more than nine nuclear bombs.

Grossi admitted to CBS: "We don't know where this material could be."

"So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved. So there has to be at some point a clarification," he said in the interview.

For now, Iranian lawmakers voted to suspend cooperation with the IAEA and Tehran rejected Grossi's request for a visit to the damaged sites, especially Fordo, the main uranium enrichment facility.

"We need to be in a position to ascertain, to confirm what is there, and where is it and what happened," Grossi said.

In a separate interview with Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures" program, Trump said he did not think the stockpile had been moved.

"It's a very hard thing to do plus we didn't give much notice," he said, according to excerpts of the interview. "They didn't move anything."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday underscored Washington's support for "the IAEA's critical verification and monitoring efforts in Iran," commending Grossi and his agency for their "dedication and professionalism."

The full Grossi interview will air on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday.