It’s that time of year again!

Sleigh bells ringing in the lane…

Chestnuts roasting over an open fire…

Figgy pudding and Yule wassail…

The roar of box trucks running over pedestrians in the marketplace…

Yessiree, it’s Christmas time!

Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this article from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Translator’s note: In a separate article, the FAZ identifies the two teens as Afghan origin and Chechen origin.

Attack in the Christmas season?

Young man arrested due to possible terror plans

November 30, 2023

A 20-year-old man had announced that he would carry out attacks during the Christmas season. Now he is in custody. Generally, the police think they are well prepared for security issues at the Christmas markets.

Due to the suspicion that he planned a terror attack during the Christmas season, a 20-year-old man has been arrested in Lower Saxony. “He announced that he wanted to carry out attacks in connection with large events during the Christmas season, and that is why we have taken him into preventive custody,” said Lower Saxony Interior Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) to NDR [North German Radio] Lower Saxony on Thursday.

The NDR reported after a joint investigation with WDR [West German Radio] that the suspect from Sachsen-Anhalt was arrested in Helmstedt on November 21. He comes from Iraq, said the interior minister.

“Very visible there and in force”

He “is in police custody based on security measures. The State Police of Lower Saxony are not giving further background at this time due to tactical-investigative reasons,” the NDR quoted a State Police spokesperson.

With a view to the security situation at Christmas markets, Interior Minister Behrens said that the police are “very visible there and in force,” among other things because of the military conflict in the Middle East. And: “ We also have other Islamists, who are no longer in the public eye, but who have announced plans for further attacks in the West.”

Most recently, in North Rhine-Westphalia, two young men were arrested who reportedly sympathized with the Islamic State and who allegedly planned a Christmas market attack. They are in custody. Ultimately, they allegedly agreed “to kill visitors to a Christmas market in Leverkusen by a fuel-generated explosion in a small truck at the beginning of December,” as the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office reported on Thursday.