Three suspected Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda have been arrested in Germany for allegedly plotting "massive" attacks on local targets frequented by Americans.
Sudwestfunk television, citing unnamed security sources in Berlin, is reporting that the three men had planned to launch the attacks on Frankfurt's international airport and the Ramstein Air Base.
The base is used as a major U.S. and NATO military hub. It serves as a major conduit for U.S. troops moving in and out of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said he could not confirm the locations in an interview on German television.
"I ask you to understand that I cannot say anything about the details. But I will say again, our security forces were very active here and in my view did very good work,'' Jung said.
In a later interview, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that officials did not "know exactly what the targets of the attacks were.''
German Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms offered up more details, saying the suspects had looked at institutions and establishments used by Americans in Germany -- including discos, pubs and airports.
"We were able to succeed in recognizing and preventing the most serious and massive bombings," Harms told reporters Wednesday.
Harms said the suspects -- two Germans and a Turkish national -- had trained in Pakistan at camps run by the Islamic Jihad Union, a group based in Central Asia.
The trio had formed a German cell of the group in 2006 and managed to obtain about 700 kilograms of hydrogen peroxide, officials allege.
The hydrogen peroxide, which was being stored in a hideout, had the potential to be mixed with other additives to produce a bomb with the explosive power of about 550 kilograms of TNT.
"This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid (transit) bombings," Joerg Ziercke, the head of Germany's Federal Crime Office, said at a joint press conference with Harms.
Prosecutors suggested police substituted a harmless chemical for the raw bomb material during their six-month investigation, to stop any potential threat.
Authorities were first alerted to the three suspects in late 2006 because they had been seen observing a U.S. military facility in Hanau, near Frankfurt.
The three men were in a German federal court in Karlsruhe Wednesday for a closed proceeding.
The two German suspects, aged 22 and 28, are converts to Islam. The third suspect is a 29-year-old Turkish man.
Ziercke said the three men were distinguished by their "profound hatred of U.S. citizens."
Bob Ayres, an analyst at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said radical Islamic militants are not bound by national loyalty.
"They're not Germans, Brits or French. They are radical Muslims living in these countries," Ayres, also a former U.S. intelligence officer, told The Associated Press.
Prosecutors in Karlsruhe said the arrests occurred Tuesday afternoon following searches across the country.
On Tuesday, Denmark authorities said they had arrested eight suspects believed to have links to al Qaeda. Officials said the eight had been planning a bomb plot.
With files from The Associated Press
