page_title: 2007 bomb plot in Germany
section_title: Investigation
hierarchical_section_title: 2007 bomb plot in Germany / Investigation
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial photo looking from the east showing Frankfurt airport as a light island in the dark forest. Service areas, passenger and cargo terminals to the right, to the left building site of "Cargo City South". In the upper right the construction site of the new runway and from left to right the "Startbahn-West".
context_page_description: The 2007 bomb plot in Germany, planned by the Islamic Jihad Union-affiliated Sauerland terror cell, was discovered following an extensive nine-month investigation that involved more than 600 agents. Three men were arrested on 4 September 2007 while leaving a rented cottage in the Oberschledorn district of Medebach, Germany where they had stored 700 kg of a hydrogen peroxide-based mixture and 26 military-grade detonators and were attempting to build car bombs. A supporter was arrested in Turkey. All four had attended an IJU-training camp in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2006. They were convicted in 2010 and given prison sentences.
context_section_description: The suspects had been under observation since October 2006, when the NSA had intercepted communications between them and IJU and alerted German authorities. At the end of 2006, Fritz Gelowicz was spotted suspiciously observing a US Army base in Hanau. The suspects had rented a vacation house in the remote town of Oberschledorn, where they amassed 700 kg (1,500 lbs) of hydrogen peroxide, and military-grade detonators from Syria.
  A 20 July conversation between two suspects mentioned targeting "a disco filled with American sluts," as well as Ramstein Air Base and the Frankfurt airport.
  A phone call from northern Pakistan in late August is purported to have set a 15 September deadline for the group's attacks. The group was aware that they were being watched by police, one member even slashing an unmarked police car's tires while stopped at an intersection.
  A routine traffic stop by police not involved in the investigation led to the officers mentioning that the drivers were on a federal watchlist, a comment that the suspects overheard (as was recorded by covert listening devices installed by German authorities in their rented car). This led to an unscheduled raid on their cottage on 4 September 2007. The men were preparing to move the chemicals by van when they were arrested outside the home. There was a minor scuffle and one of the men shot a German police officer in the hand before being subdued.
caption: Frankfurt Airport
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