BERLIN, May 31 (UPI) -- German authorities may have prevented suicide bombing attacks in Iraq and Pakistan by three German women, a German newspaper reported Wednesday.
Citing an unnamed high-ranking security official, Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel said authorities stopped three female Islam converts from travelling to Iraq and Pakistan, where they had planned suicide bomb attacks.
Two of the women hail from southern Germany and the third is from Berlin; all are between 20 and 40 years old and have converted to Islam. They adopted their radical views through contacts in Islamist Internet chat rooms and under the influence of their Islamist partners, the newspaper said.
At least one woman has talked of her plan to carry out a suicide bombing in a chat room. Two of the women had planned to take their small children along whom they may have included in the bombings.
The trio is under close security surveillance and one woman has been brought to a mental institution, however there has been no legal case brought against them.
The security official said one woman had links to the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam, which has carried out several terrorist attacks in Iraq.
