A gavel inside a courtroom at RAF Mildenhall, England, May 28, 2019. German authorities in Bavaria arrested two suspected former Islamic State group members, a 28-year-old Iraqi man and a 46-year-old Syrian man, on suspicion of membership in a terrorist organization, Munich prosecutors said. (Joseph Barron/U.S. Air Force)
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — A Syrian man accused of working for the Islamic State group was arrested by German police this week in a Bavarian city where many U.S. service members and their families live.
The unidentified man, 46, was arrested Tuesday in Weiden in der Oberpfalz, about 10 miles southeast of U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria’s Tower Barracks in Grafenwoehr.
Weiden offers the closest thing to urban life near the rural base, which is home to the 7th Army Training Command. Many soldiers and their families live in the city, which just hosted its first-ever Fourth of July celebration marking America’s 250th anniversary.
The man is accused of serving in the Islamic State’s police force and other combat units from February to July 2016, according to a joint statement Wednesday by the Bavarian State Criminal Police and Munich State Attorney General’s Office.
The statement didn’t say which country he was in at the time but said he received monthly payments for his services.
In a separate case, an Iraqi man was arrested July 23 in Traunreut, about 160 miles south of Tower Barracks. Authorities say he served in Islamic State combat units in Iraq and Syria between January and September 2016
Both men are accused of membership in a terrorist organization and are being held in pretrial detention in Bavarian correctional facilities, the statement said.
Germany is home to the largest concentration of U.S. forces in Europe, with roughly 35,000 troops stationed in the country. U.S. bases there have played a key supporting role in the U.S. war with Iran.
Stars and Stripes reporter Marcus Kloeckner contributed to this report.
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