German Officials Thwart Terrorism Attack

Three radical Islamists are being detained for their alleged involvement in a plot to attack the U.S. Ramstein airbase and Frankfurt's international airport.

According to Germany's Der Spiegel, the attack:

...would have been an inferno. The explosive material the men had would have sufficed to make bombs with a higher explosive power that those used in the attacks in Madrid and London, according to [the head of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office, Jörg] Ziercke.

The three men had planned on mixing the explosive material so as to produce a bomb with the power of 550 kilograms (1,200 pounds) of TNT. The federal prosecutor's office ordered all three men arrested Tuesday afternoon. The police forces struck in a spontaneous raid because the men, who were already under observation, intended to begin preparing chemicals to make a bomb and to leave their hideout.

For more media coverage: see these articles by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR.