Germany arrests members of far-right terror cell

BERLIN

German police Tuesday smashed a far-right terror cell believed responsible for attacks on refugees and leftist politicians, prosecutors said.

Five suspects -- a woman and four men aged 18 to 39 -- were arrested in Freital, a town close to Dresden, in an operation involving more than 200 officers, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office said.

"The five suspects arrested today are strongly suspected of founding the far-right terrorist organization ‘Freital Group’ in June 2015 at the latest, together with three other suspects," prosecutors said in a statement.

The three other suspects, including two alleged leaders of the group -- a 27-year-old identified as Timo S. and 24-year-old Patrick F. -- were arrested earlier.

The group is accused of carrying out at least three bomb attacks against asylum centers and left-wing targets in 2015. The attacks caused damage to property but no serious casualties.

Police found bomb-making equipment at the properties raided.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the operation had prevented fresh attacks on refugees.

"With their action today, the security services have managed to strike a serious blow to a regional far-right terror structure," he said in a statement. "This shows that the state is taking timely and decisive action against far-right terrorist structures and criminals."

The raids are the latest in the wake of the unearthing of the National Socialist Union (NSU), which killed 10 people between 2000 and 2007, most of them Turkish immigrants. The case demonstrated that Germany’s security services had long underestimated the threat of far-right violence.

Uli Grotsch, a senior lawmaker from the Social Democrat Party, said recent investigations had revealed new right-wing terror structures and a growing tendency to use violence.

"The NSU was not an individual case," he said in a statement. "We must go after far-right terrorists, making use of all legal means."