BERLIN - Germany has charged six foreign nationals with allegedly plotting terrorist attacks on behalf of the Islamic State Province of Khorasan (ISIS-K), the federal prosecutor's office said on April 24.

The suspects, identified as Tajik citizens Mukhammadshujo A, Nuriddin K, Shamshud N, Said S, Raboni Z, and Kyrgyz citizen Abrorjon K, are charged with founding a terrorist organisation, among other things.

They had intended to carry out high-profile attacks in Germany and Western Europe but had no concrete plan when law enforcement intervened, according to the statement.

The suspects, who were arrested in July 2023, had been in touch with ISIS-K, the Afghan offshoot of Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for a mass shooting in Moscow in March in which at least 137 people were killed.

According to investigators, the suspects arrived in Germany via Ukraine after war broke out there in spring 2022, and formed a terrorist cell together with another member from the Netherlands.

They met regularly to discuss their intentions and scouted potential locations in Germany, the prosecutors' statement said. REUTERS