About 1,000 police raided dozens of buildings across Germany early on Thursday in a crackdown on radical Salafi Islamists suspected of plotting against the state.
Announcing the crackdown, Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said he had banned one of the Salafis' groups called the Millatu Ibrahim and said the raids may unearth evidence that would allow the outlawing of two other associations.
"[The Millatu Ibrahim group] works against our constitutional order," he told reporters.
German authorities have recently stepped up their monitoring of ultra-conservative Salafi groups following a series of violent clashes with police.
