Terror Warning Focuses on Hospital in Germany
HAMBURG, Germany — Police closed streets around a military hospital Tuesday in suburban Wandsbek after U.S. authorities warned that Islamic militants planned suicide car bombings aimed at the facility.
The intelligence warning named two alleged suicide attackers from Ansar al Islam, a group believed linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, who planned to attack the Bundeswehr hospital, state Interior Minister Dirk Nockemann said.
The alleged plotters traveled to Hamburg in early December, said Heino Vahldiek, head of the Hamburg branch of the federal security agency.
The U.S. Embassy in Berlin refused to comment on the reported threat Tuesday.
Police said that after several hours of searching the area they found nothing suspicious and made no arrests.
Nockemann described the information about the planned attack as vague, and said there were also threats against U.S. military installations in the Frankfurt area. But the U.S. Air Force Europe said it had received no notification of a terrorist threat.
At the nearby Wandsbek-Gartenstadt subway station, officers with submachine guns and bulletproof vests checked the identity cards of residents.
The area around the clinic swarmed with police officers.
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