Three in custody by German authorities.

“Three suspected Islamic terrorists from an al-Qaida-influenced group nursing “profound hatred of U.S. citizens” were arrested on suspicious of plotting imminent, massive bomb attacks on U.S. facilities in Germany, prosecutors said Wednesday.

A senior State Department official said German investigators had determined the Frankfurt International Airport and the nearby U.S. Ramstein Air Base were the primary targets of the plot but that those arrested may have also been considering strikes on other sites, particularly facilities associated with the United States.

It was the second time in as many days that European officials said they had thwarted a major attack, following the arrest by Danish authorities on Tuesday of eight alleged Islamic militants with links to senior al-Qaida terrorists. It also comes less than a week before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

German Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms said the three suspects, two of whom were German converts to Islam, had trained at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, a group based in Central Asia. They had obtained some 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives.

“We were able to succeed in recognizing and preventing the most serious and massive bombings,” Harms told reporters. She declined to name specific targets, but said the suspects had an eye on institutions and establishments frequented by Americans in Germany, including discos, pubs and airports.

The senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe discussions between American and German intelligence agencies, said the threat had been a major reason the U.S. Embassy in Berlin had boosted security and issued two warnings in April and May about possible impending terrorist attacks.”

This on the heals of eight who Danish who were nabbed the same day in Copenhagen. Der Spiegel has the best information and details on just how nasty this attack would have been.

“The three men had planned on mixing the explosive material so as to produce a bomb with the power of 550 kilograms (1,200 pounds) of TNT. The federal prosecutor’s office ordered all three men arrested Tuesday afternoon. The police forces struck in a spontaneous raid because the men, who were already under observation, intended to begin preparing chemicals to make a bomb and to leave their hideout.”

Ouch! The group is believed to be members of the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), which operates out of - sigh - Pakistan. Everything seemed in the planning stages.

“They were still far from having a finished bomb, however. “It wasn’t a case of coitus interruptus,” commented one official. However, according to information obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, the men had all the necessary components ready — they had even already procured a military ignition mechanism for the explosive device. “An attack was imminent — it was only a question of time,” said one high-ranking security expert. Probably the men wanted to place the bombs in one or more cars and explode them in front of the target.

The goal of the men was clear. “The intention was to commit an attack and cause as many deaths as possible,” said the official. The investigators were mainly concerned that the three men had been acting conspiratorially in the last few weeks and possibly were planning to split up after the meeting in Oberschledorn and work further on their plan even more inconspicuously. Out of fear of losing track of the group and their activities, the police decided to strike.”

More to come.