Turkish-origin man arrested as German police raid Islamists in Berlin

More than 200 German police officers raided suspected Islamist sites in and around Berlin early on Jan. 16, arresting an alleged leader of a group planning to carry out an attack in Syria, police said.
   
The arrested man, who was identified as Ismet D., is a 41-year-old man of Turkish origin and is suspected of "leading an Islamist extremist group made up of Turkish and Russian nationals from (the Caucasus regions' of) Chechnya and Dagestan," the police said in a statement, adding that "there is no indication that the group was preparing attacks inside Germany."       

The German raids came just hours after two suspected Islamists were killed in a massive police raid on suspected jihadists in Belgium and a week after Islamist attacks in Paris claimed 17 lives.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Jan. 15 vowed to heighten security measures against Islamist