(VOVworld) – On Wednesday German police arrested 9 suspected supporters of militant groups in Syria, including the Islamic State, who pose threats to Germany. The suspects, aged 22 to 58, include 8 Islamic Germans and 1 Pakistani. They face charges of sending jihadists from Germany to Syria to join IS and of raising thousands of USD for the operations of IS and other militant groups. Police searched the houses of 20 ultraconservative Muslims.

Some 240 police officers took part in the sweep, which targeted a network believed to support Islamists in Syria. (Photo: AP)

The Federal Criminal Police Office reported that about 1,000 people in Germany are supporters of Islamic terrorism, and several hundreds of them in the future might organize acts of terror in Germany. Security sources estimate that about 450 Germans have traveled to Syria since fighting began to join extremist groups and only 150 have returned to Germany. The German Federal Ministry of the Interior is planning to seize their personal identifications to prevent them from returning to Syria.