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The Berlin Senate and the police carried out a major raid against a radical Islamist association in the capital.
The Senate Administration announced on Thursday morning via Twitter that the “Jihad-Salafist association Jama'atu Berlin alias Tauhid Berlin” had been banned.
The police in Berlin and Brandenburg searched numerous homes of members early Thursday morning.
800 police officers were on duty, a spokesman said.
There were searches in the Märkisches Viertel in Reinickendorf, Moabit and Neukölln, among others.
Special task forces (SEK) were also involved.
The federal police were there as support.
The aim of the searches is to find evidence, the spokesman said.
Initially, nothing was known about arrests.
According to initial information, the association did not operate its own mosque.
The members probably met in private rooms.
The Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution had already reported some time ago about the trend that radical Salafists would increasingly no longer meet in mosques but in private apartments.
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Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) announced further information at a press conference in the morning.
The "Tagesspiegel" reported that the members of the small group knew each other from the Fussilet Mosque, which was closed earlier and where Anis Amri, the assassin from the Berlin Christmas market in 2016, also frequented.
According to information from the “Tagesspiegel”, the group glorified the struggle of the terrorist militia “Islamic State” and called for the killing of Jews.