3 Arrested in Suspected Plot to Attack Iraqi Prime Minister

Jihad in Berlin. From the New York Times, with thanks to Kemaste:

BERLIN, Dec. 3 - German police today arrested three Iraqis who the chief federal prosecutor said appeared to have been planning an attack on Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq, here for talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

The prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said that the men were arrested after a series of raids in three German cities overnight. Intercepts of telephone conversations involving the three suspects had pointed to an attack on Mr. Allawi, he said.

"There were indications pointing to a particular event" in Mr. Allawi's program, Mr. Nehm said at a press conference in Karlsruhe, in southwest Germany.

Mr. Nehm said that in response to heightened concerns about his security, Mr. Allawi canceled a meeting he was to have held with Iraqi exiles on Thursday evening. It was apparently the suspected terrorists' response to the change in Mr. Allawi's program that led the police to believe an attack was being planned.

"Based on the changed program and the reaction in the various telephone calls, one must conclude that the comments in those calls indicate something was planned against the Iraqi prime Minister," Mr. Nehm said.