Germany: Daesh suspect held for attacking Turk shops

BERLIN

A suspected Daesh/ISIS member has been arrested in Germany following a series of arson attacks on shops owned by Turkish immigrants, police announced on Sunday.

Robert Kopp, police chief for the Upper Bavaria region, told a news conference that the suspect arrested late on Friday confessed that he carried out the attacks in recent weeks in the southeastern town of Waldkraiburg.

Speaking on the occasion, public prosecutor Georg Freutsmiedl said the 25-year-old claimed to be a member of the terrorist Daesh/ISIS group and told prosecutors that he "hated Turks" and planned further attacks against them.

He is a German citizen with a Kurdish immigrant background, according to local media.

Since April 17, at least four shops owned by Turkish immigrants have been the target of arson attempts in Waldkraiburg, a small town near Munich.

On April 27, six people were injured at a Turkish supermarket that was set on fire.

The suspect was arrested during a ticket control at a train station about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) east of Waldkraiburg.

Earlier, authorities suspected that neo-Nazi extremists or the terrorist PKK group could be behind the arson attacks and told the Turkish community that they were "investigating in all possible directions."

Germany has a 3 million-strong Turkish community, many of whom are second and third-generation German-born citizens whose grandparents moved to the country during the 1960s.

The PKK group, which has nearly 10,000 followers among the Kurdish immigrant population in the country, carried out various arson attacks in the past several years to protest Turkey's counterterrorism operations in northern Syria.

Since 2016, Turkey has been carrying out major military operations in northern Syria to clear the border region both from the PKK/YPG and Daesh terrorist groups.

Daesh carried out various terror attacks in Turkey in recent years, martyring around 300 Turkish civilians and security officials.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants, in its more than 30-year terror campaign. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.