Germany Ends Year with Fivefold Increase in Terror Investigations

Germany opened five times as many terror investigations this year compared to 2016, newspaper Tagesschau reported Saturday.

Authorities launched around 1,200 investigations involving suspected terrorism acts throughout the year. Some 1,000 of them had an Islamist background. The total number marks a fivefold increase from an estimated 250 investigations in 2016.

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Not all cases involve plans to carry out attacks. Migrants from Syran, Iraq and Afghanistan have been tried over alleged membership in terror groups without being suspected of planning attacks on European soil.

Germany’s federal police (BKA) estimates 705 Islamist extremists are willing to carry out terror attacks, up from 600 during an estimate in February. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV) recently said around 24,400 Islamists are active in the country but most of them don’t pose an immediate terror threat.

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