KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) - three suspected al Qaeda members planned a bomb attack in Germany then four months that they were arrested, federal prosecutors said.
Rainer Griesbaum, a Federal Prosecutor, said at a Saturday press conference that the trio, headed by a Moroccan aged 29, had planned to blow up their device in a populated area but had not yet taken a target.
"They were still at the experimental stage," Griesbaum said. "They have been planned to explode a device packed with metal in the middle of a crowd".
The German authorities said the suspects, arrested Friday, had discussed the bomb in a bus or at a bus stop.
The three were arrested in Duesseldorf police raids and the nearby town of Bochum, 6: 30 p.m. Friday after the authorities, who had been followed by the group, decided that they could receive close to carry out an attack.
Prosecutors, said that the public had not been in danger.
Newspaper Bild reported that the Eurovision Song Contest, watched by more than 100 million viewers, was a possible target. The competition will be held in the Western City of Düsseldorf on 14 May.
The alleged ringleader, a stall 29-year-old college identified as Abdeladim El - k., was charged with planning a terrorist attack in Germany and be a member of a foreign terror organization. The other two suspects are still interviewed.
Griesbaum, said the Moroccan 29 years old had been involved in a terror of al-Qaeda camp in Pakistan's Waziristan region near the Afghan border in 2010. He returned to Germany in May 2010 and sought to build a network of terror here with an estimated seven to eight members.
"But it might also be more than that," said Joerg Ziercke, President of the Federal Office of Crime (BKA), at the press conference in the Office of the Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe. "We'll learn more with our investigation.".
The suspects have applauded Thursday bombing in Marrakech where 15 were killed, Griesbaum said.
IS NOT A SUICIDE ATTACK
The other suspects are a 31 year old electrician, identified as Jamil s., which has the dual German and Moroccan nationality and one aged 19 with citizenship German and Iranian, Amid c, which was about to get their high school diploma.
S. Jamil was responsible for organizing the financing of the attack and to obtain the identity for Abdeladim El papers - k. In c has been tasked to ensure encrypted communications.
German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday that CIA developing than the Morocco Intelligence Agency had collaborated with the German authorities for investigation.
Ziercke said the three had inspected the buildings public and downloaded information on explosives on the internet.
"But we have all indications that they were planning a suicide attack," said Ziercke.
The authorities said that they had decided to launch the Friday raid when suspects discuss doing a "detonator of the bomb" by extraction firelighters hexamine barbecue, and mixing with peroxide of hydrogen and citric acid.
Last year, a Duesseldorf Court sentenced four militants who admitted planning "a monstrous blood bath" with the bombings of car on the U.S. objectives. They were known as the "Sauerland group" after the Western region of the Germany where they were captured.
European countries have taken with militant threats for years, regularly arresting individuals or groups suspected of planning any fear attacks may reflect the attacks in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005, which killed more than 200 people.
Berlin considers Germany as a potential target because it has almost 5,000 members stationed in Afghanistan, the third largest contingent of the international force of 150,000 fight against the insurgency led by the Taliban.
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