There are new developments in a series of terrorism plots aimed at Europe, NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports.
French law enforcement arrested a dozen suspects in France, and although details remain sketchy, the group was allegedly involved in forging documents. According to Temple-Raston, the group had been under surveillance for some time. With the implementation of new terrorism warnings, French officials decided they didn't want to take any chances.
According to U.S. and other officials, a series of missile strikes on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan targeted and killed a handful of German nationals being trained for some sort of terrorist strike.
"There is some confusion as to how many Germans were killed," Temple-Raston told NPR's Robert Siegel. "U.S. sources tell us they think between four and eight Germans may have been killed in this attack."
She said some German nationals are leaving Europe, to join a group called the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which enjoys a close relationship with the Taliban.
Officials were tipped off by someone from the IMU -- a man who was arrested in July, as he tried to board a flight from Kabul to Europe. He has been at Bagram Airfield ever since.
According to Temple-Raston reports, "this seems to be part of a broader trend that we've been seeing over the last 18 months."
Groups that never looked at overseas targets before seem to be starting to. The IMU, this Uzbek group, never had gone after an international target. Before this past may, the Pakistani Taliban never did either, and then they sent Faisal Shahzad to denoate a car bomb in Times Square.
In New York City today, Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison.
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