By David Rising, The Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) -- Police have searched 27 apartments across Germany and arrested one man in raids against suspected Islamic extremists, officials said Wednesday.
The raids in cities including Frankfurt, Muenster and Hamburg followed a yearlong observation of 25 people suspected of founding a radical Islamic organization, said Job Tilmann, spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutors’ office, which coordinated the operation Tuesday.
The suspects are all believed to be members or sympathizers of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a group calling for the creation of an Islamic state in Central Asia, Tilmann said.
Several people were detained temporarily, and one man was arrested in Frankfurt, though Tilmann said the charges against him stemmed from an unrelated conviction. He said he had no further details on the suspects.
Documents and computer disks were seized, and police also found containers of a chemical substance in the western city of Muenster. Police experts found that it was not dangerous and could not be used to make explosives or poisonous gas, Tilmann said.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir, or Islamic Liberation Army, was formed in Lebanon in 1953 but spread to overwhelmingly Muslim Central Asia after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. It aims to unite all Muslims through the creation of an Islamic caliphate, or empire, ruled by Islamic law, or Shariah.
The group has denounced the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism and a possible attack on Iraq.
German authorities are using new laws passed after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States to crack down on extremist groups suspected of supporting terrorism.
Three of the pilots in those attacks lived and studied in Hamburg, and a Moroccan man accused of giv ing them logistical support currently is on trial.
In September, police raided 100 homes and offices across the country believed to be used by followers of Caliphate State, a group calling for the overthrow of Turkey’s secular government and its replacement with an Islamic state.
Interior Minister Otto Schily has called the group a “breeding ground for terrorists.”