Austrian police have arrested four suspected terrorists, including the three who were on their way to training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the interior ministry announced Thursday.
The three recruits were arrested Wednesday at Vienna airport, ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said. They were a 25-year-old Austrian recently converted to Islam and a man and a woman aged at least 20 who both have refugee status in Austria. One of them is of Chechen origin, according to the Austrian anti-terrorism office which is heading the investigation.
The fourth suspect, another 25-year-old Austrian national, similarly converted to Islam, was detained around the same time in Vienna on the suspicion of recruiting people for terror training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan and financing a terrorist organisation, German Taliban Mujahideen. The man, who is suspected of transferring 1,000 euros ($1,400) to German Taliban Mujahideen via Western Union, is believed to have had contacts with another Austrian, Maqsood L., 21, who was arrested in Germany last month on the suspicion of recruiting people for Taliban Mujahideen, according to media reports.