German police arrested two men near Frankfurt on terrorism charges Friday, alleging they were involved in a cell that had plotted to blow up U.S. targets in Germany a year ago. Federal prosecutors said the two suspects -- a German citizen and a Turkish national -- had traveled separately to Pakistan during 2007 in an attempt to receive training at camps operated by the Islamic Jihad Union, a terrorist group allied with al-Qaeda.
Authorities said the men had shared bank account information and a debit card with three men arrested in September 2007 on suspicion of planning mass bombing attacks on U.S. targets in Germany.
Prosecutors identified the German citizen as Omid S., a 27-year-old of Afghan descent, and said he had received training at a militant camp along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border during the spring and summer of 2007.
The Turkish man, identified as 27-year-old Hueseyin O., also traveled to the region last year, prosecutors said. Before he could reach the camp, however, he was detained by Pakistani security forces and forced to return to Germany, according to a statement released by the German federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe.
German officials said that they believe the pair may have been aware of plans by the Islamic Jihad Union to bomb U.S. targets in Germany but that they did not accuse the pair of playing a direct role. Both men were charged with membership in a terrorist group.
Earlier this month, German prosecutors filed an indictment against the three suspected ringleaders of last year's plot and said they had discussed a number of possible bombing targets, including U.S. military bases in Germany and a dance club in the city of Giessen.
Police arrested the three men Sept. 4, 2007, in the rural village of Oberschledorn as they transferred bombmaking chemicals from a rented house. Police said they had stockpiled more than 1,500 pounds of the chemicals to construct homemade explosives and had smuggled detonators from Turkey.
Two of the men were German natives -- Fritz Martin Gelowicz and Daniel Martin Schneider -- who had converted to Islam. The third suspect, Adem Yilmaz is a Turkish national who grew up in Germany. The three suspects, all in their 20s, had attended training camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, prosecutors said.
A fourth man in the plot was arrested in Turkey last November and is awaiting extradition to Germany. A trial date has not been set.