German police arrested seven people today on suspicion of forming a terrorist organization to carry out attacks similar to those of the Islamic State group, prosecutors said.

The suspects, nationals of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, were arrested in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. They had known each other for a long time and had entered the country from Ukraine shortly after the war broke out in 2022, prosecutors said.

They formed a terrorist organization in June 2022 and wanted to carry out attacks against targets in Germany. They were trying to obtain weapons, but when they were arrested they had no specific plans for an attack, according to a statement from prosecutors.

In addition to the Kyrgyz national, the suspects were arrested in Germany and since April 2022 were also raising money for the Islamic State and had repeatedly made money transfers to the organization abroad.

Dutch authorities today arrested two additional suspects linked to the organization, a man from Tajikistan and his wife, a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, who had been residing in the Netherlands since 2022.

The man is believed to be a member of Islamic State and was ordered to plan an attack, although the plans had not yet been specified, Dutch prosecutors said in a separate statement.