German police capture of Syrian thwarted Islamist-motivated attack

German police in Saxony said that the 22-year old Syrian refugee Jaber Abakr arrested Sunday night in Leipzig, had ties to the Islamic State and may have been planning an attack on a high-profile target such as an airport. He had been hunted for two days since a raid on a flat in nearby Chemnitz on Saturday found several hundred grammes of explosives. Citing unnamed security officials, the dpa news agency reported that two Syrians had been approached by the suspect at Leipzig train station. They invited him back to their apartment, from where they alerted the police. Abakr arrived in Germany in 2015 and was granted asylum.