Three suspected al-Qaeda members were working on making a shrapnel-laden bomb in Germany to attack a crowded place such as a bus a plot that shows Europe faces an ongoing terror threat,officials said Saturday. Law enforcement officials said the trio,arrested Friday after being under surveillance for months,hadnt picked a specific target,but were experimenting with explosives and detonators before authorities swooped in. The suspects include a Moroccan,a German with Moroccan citizenship,and a German with Iranian citizenship. The attack was still in the experimentation stage, anti-terrorism prosecutor Rainer Griesbaum said at a news conference. Officials decided to arrest the three in the western cities of Duesseldorf and Bochum after surveillance indicated they were tinkering with making a detonator and had explored explosive materials signs they might be close to carrying out an attack. A member of the cell was overheard saying he wanted to do a bus. The trio had been researching how to pack a bomb with metal objects that they could set off in a crowded area,officials said. They had also researched security measures at public buildings,train stations and airports. The instigator of the German conspiracy was said to have received the assignment to carry out a bombing from a high-ranking al-Qaeda member early last year. The man described as the main suspect identified only as Abdeladim El-K,a 29-year-old Moroccan citizen left Germany in early 2010 and trained in an al-Qaeda camp in Waziristan near the Afghan-Pakistan border,and returned last year to carry out the attack,Griesbaum said. El-K had once resided in Germany on a student visa but later returned illegally after abandoning his studies. He appeared before a judge and was charged with membership in a foreign terrorist organisation. The other two suspects,a 31-year-old with German and Moroccan citizenship and a 19-year-old with German and Iranian citizenship,were to appear in court later Saturday.
