German police arrest Moroccan suspected of ties to Brussels, Paris attacks


German police have arrested a 24-year-old Moroccan man suspected of being a member of the Daesh terrorist organization and being linked to terrorist attacks in France and Belgium earlier this year, authorities said on Wednesday.

The arrest comes as the German authorities mount a massive manhunt for a Tunisian-born suspect after a Monday attack with a truck on a Berlin Christmas market. However, they stressed that the two cases were not linked.

The Moroccan man was arrested in the central German state of Lower Saxony. He entered Germany last year, the federal prosecutor's office said. The arrest warrant is dated December 13.

The federal prosecutor accuses the man of having belonged to a group based around the mastermind of last November's Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

The prosecutor alleges that the 24-year-old set up terrorist hideouts in Turkey and Greece between October 2014 and early to mid 2015.

They also believe he was involved in the planning and preparations for an attack in Verviers in eastern Belgium.