Germany arrested two Iraqi nationals suspected of membership in the so-called Islamic State group (IS) on Tuesday in coordinated raids across five cities, the Federal Public Prosecutor announced on Wednesday.
Muthana S and Kais S J were detained in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Delbrück, North Rhine-Westphalia, by officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office.
Both men are suspected of membership of a foreign terrorist organisation under German law and allegedly belonged to IS in Iraq for several months each during 2016 and 2017.
Kais S J worked for an IS Sharia committee while Muthana S served as a fighter, according to arrest warrants issued by a Federal Court of Justice investigative judge on 24 November.
The men were brought before the judge on Tuesday, who ordered them held in pre-trial detention.
Officers searched the homes of both suspects and three other individuals in Trier, Delbrück, Cologne, Chemnitz and Wittmund in Lower Saxony.
The Federal Public Prosecutor did not provide details on the evidence that led to the arrests or on whether the suspects posed an active threat in Germany.
