Berlin, April 21, (IRNA) Germany's Interior Ministry said Saturday that threats by militant Islamist groups sparked the United States to step up security measures at American diplomatic and consular missions in Germany.
"US diplomatic and consular facilities in Germany are increasing their security posture. We are taking these steps in response to a heightened threat situation," said the message on the homepage of the American embassy in Berlin.
"The US embassy encourages Americans in Germany to increase their vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their own personal security," added the statement which failed to name the actual threat.
An unnamed interior ministry spokesman said there was an Islamist dimension' to the alert but refused to go into the specifics of the alleged threat.
Meanwhile the Berlin-based Tagesspiegel newspaper reported earlier in the day that American intelligence services warned this month that members of Ansar al-Sunna, an Islamist group fighting the American occupation in Iraq, had conducted surveillance on US facilities in southern Germany.
In other related news, daily Die Welt cited security sources as saying that German and US intelligence services had received new information relating to possible attacks on US sites in Germany by Iraqi militants.
Three men accused of belonging to a related group, Ansar al Islam, are presently on trial in the south German city of Stuttgart, charged with planning to assassinate former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi.
The US has diplomatic missions in Berlin, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich.
Thousands of American troops are also deployed in southern Germany.
The US State Department issued on April 10 a worldwide security alert, saying there is still a threat of terror attacks.
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has repeatedly warned that his country could be targeted for a major terrorist attack.