two Afghans arrested for planned attack in Sweden

The two men “planned to kill police officers and other people in Stockholm, near the Swedish Parliament, using firearms”, the prosecution said.

The German anti-terrorism prosecution announced on Tuesday March 19 the arrest of two Afghans, suspected of having planned an attack near the Swedish Parliament in reaction to the burning of the Koran. The two men, arrested in Thuringia, in eastern Germany, “planned to kill police officers and others in Stockholm, near the Swedish Parliament, using firearms”, the prosecution said in a press release.

Named as Ibrahim MG and Ramin N., they are suspected of being, “since 2023 at the latest”, sympathizers of the ideology of the Islamic State (IS) group. Ibrahim MG is thus accused of having joined the regional branch of the “Islamic State of Khorasan Province” (ISPK).

Previously, he had already organized donation collections in Germany, with the participation of Ramin N., for around 2,000 euros. The funds were to be paid to IS members detained in northern Syria.

Joint action of Germany and Sweden

In the summer of 2023, ISPK assigned Ibrahim MG the mission of carrying out an attack in Europe in response to Korans being burned in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries. It was then that he carried out, with Ramin N., “concrete preparations in close consultation with ISPK executives”.

In particular, they carried out research on the Internet regarding local conditions around Parliament “and tried several times to obtain weapons, but without success”.

Their arrest was carried out as part of a joint action by Germany and Sweden. “We can confirm that we cooperated with the German police”declared a spokesperson for the anti-terrorism agency in Sweden, Karin Lutz.

In October 2023, German authorities had already indicted two Syrian brothers, suspected of having planned an Islamist-motivated attack against a church in Sweden in reaction to acts of desecration of the Koran in the country.