FRANKFURT, Oct 6: German authorities arrested on Sunday the leader of a group of Islamic militants suspected of planning attacks in Germany, but released four others who were being detained.

Federal prosecutor Kay Nehm confirmed in a statement that a 41-year-old Algerian man identified as Tayeb C., who was suspected of leading the group based in the eastern German city of Cottbus, had been arrested.

Nehm said the man was held on immigration charges and that nothing had been found to warrant detaining the other four.

Nehm also said that no evidence of any planned attack had been found. Police searched 11 different locations on Saturday in connection with an inquiry into the five including Cottbus, Gross-Gerau near Frankfurt in central Germany and Linfelden-Echterdingen in the southwest.

Nehm’s statement said mobile phones, letters and bank documents were seized in the raids but that no explosives had been discovered.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reported on Sunday that the police had arrested several suspected terrorists planning attacks on US interests and Jewish groups.

It said police had been watching the group for two months and suspect that it was planning to attack a US military installation at Frankfurt airport and an American radio station in the city.

It said members of the group, which was also accused of planning to target a Jewish organisation in Berlin, had made contact with security personnel at several German airports.

On Saturday, prosecutors said in a statement that the five were “suspected of preparing serious acts of violence in the Federal Republic in the name of militant Islamic fundamentalism.”

The German news magazine Focus also reported that the group, which it claimed had sought refuge in Germany, planned to attack US interests and Jewish organisations.

Both Berlin and Frankfurt would have been targeted by the group, along with the US airbase in Spangdahlem in western Germany, the magazine said in extracts of an article to be published Monday.

The airbase was the subject of a bomb hoax at the beginning of September.

The article, quoting a source close to the inquiry, said US authorities had been informed of the group’s activities.

While the magazine did not give the group’s name or those of its members, it said the suspected leader had been seeking out explosives experts.

Germany has been the base for a number of alleged Islamic extremists including three suspected of involvement in the Sept 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington: Mohammed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al Shibh, who all lived in Hamburg.—AFP