German police have detained a man who they believe was plotting a car-ramming attack near an ice-skating rink in the city of Karlsruhe, Russia Today reported Thursday. The suspect, who was identified as 29-year-old Dasbar W., reportedly has connections to the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group. Preliminary information suggests he planned to ram a vehicle into the stands near the ice-skating rink in the center of the southwestern city of Karlsruhe. He allegedly scouted the location in August and had unsuccessfully tried to get a job as a delivery driver, which would have given him access to the area and a vehicle, according to Russia Today . The suspect is also said to have been distributing ISIS propaganda videos and promoting its ideology in Whatsapp group chats. Prosecutors say he traveled to Iraq twice between 2015 and July 2017 to join ISIS and undergo firearms training. They also say he carried out reconnaissance missions for attacks in the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. Dasbar W. was closely monitored by authorities ahead of his arrest on Wednesday and was brought before a federal court on Thursday, Russia Today said. Germany has been on high alert following a series of attacks in the country. In one attack , a 17-year-old Afghani with an axe attacked passengers on a train in Wurzburg before being shot dead by security forces. In a second incident, an attacker set off a bomb in a restaurant in Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 12 others. The most serious attack took place last December, when terrorist Anis Amri drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack. Earlier this year, a Palestinian Arab man fatally stabbed one person and wounded six others at a Hamburg supermarket. There have been several arrests of terror suspects as well. In June, German police arrested a teenage asylum seeker suspected of planning a suicide attack in Berlin. In January, German police arrested a man accused of having ties to a suspected Islamic extremist who had been captured in Austria and thought to have been plotting an attack.
