Stun grenades, tanks

SEK hunts RAF terrorists in Berlin – 2 arrests

Police officers with an armored vehicle on Sunday. The operation was in connection with the manhunt for the two suspected RAF robbers who are still on the run.(Bild: APA/dpa/Paul Zinken)

A major police operation took place early on Sunday morning in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. It was in connection with the hunt for two RAF members who had gone into hiding. Arrests were made and the police fired shots.

The police searched rooms in several places. Doors were blown open and stun grenades were set off. This was stated by a spokeswoman for the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) of Lower Saxony in Berlin. 

Sounds of gunfire
At one location, the sounds of gunshots were heard during the arrests, but there were no injuries, the LKA press officer said. 

Wanted RAF terrorists not among those arrested
However, the two RAF members Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg, who have gone into hiding, are not among those arrested in the large-scale operation, said the LKA spokeswoman late this morning. Although several people had been provisionally arrested, "the two are probably not among them". According to the spokesperson, the arrests were solely for the purpose of establishing identity. There were no specific charges. 

Bild" reported a total of five arrests, but all of the people were released. In addition to the LKA Lower Saxony, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Berlin police were involved in the operation. The operation began at around 7.30 a.m. in an industrial estate on Markgrafendamm.

Members of the third generation
Like Daniela Klette, who was arrested in Berlin on Monday, Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg belonged to the third generation of the former left-wing extremist terrorist organization Rote-Armee-Fraktion (RAF). During their active time, the then Deutsche Bank boss Alfred Herrhausen (1989) and Treuhand boss Detlev Karsten Rohwedder (1991) were murdered and Herrhausen's driver seriously injured.

The fugitive former RAF terrorist Burkhard Garweg(Bild: AFP)

This flag photo from 2016 is said to show alleged RAF terrorist Daniela Klette.(Bild: AFP/STATE OFFICE OF CRIMNIAL INVESTIGATIONS LOWER SAXONY)

RAF: The epitome of terror and murder
For decades, the RAF was the epitome of terror and murder in western Germany, which was still divided. In 1998 it declared itself disbanded. Klette, Staub and Garweg are also wanted for a series of subsequent cash-in-transit robberies.