GETTY The refugees were arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks for Isis.

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Officers of the elite GSG9 anti-terror police swooped on two migrant homes in Lower Saxony and in the far north of Germany in SchleSwig-Holstein bordering Denmark. Three Syrians identified only as Mahir Al-H. aged 17, Mohamed A., 26, and and Ibrahim M., 18, were taken into custody along with their mobiles and computers. Interior minister Thomas de Maziere confirmed the men had links to the Paris attackers amid fears they were part of a wider ISIS sleeper cell plottting attacks on the continent.

The terror threat now stems from foreign hit teams as well as fanatical lone wolves in Germany Thomas de Maziere

A further six apartments were searched and material taken away by police who swarmed over the regions in over 200 vehicles in the early hours of this morning. Media reports said the men came to Germany disguised as refugees last year and were awaiting orders from jihadist superiors in their homeland about what and when to strike. A Germany returnee from the Syrian battlefront, who is now serving four years in a German jail for membership of Isis, told intelligence agents earlier this year that the terror group is keen to pull off a spectacular outrage in Germany similar to the Paris slaughter a year ago.

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Mahir Al-H. received weapons and explosives training in Raqqa, the capital of the so-called Islamic caliphate, in September 2015 before being sent west in November posing as a refugee aboard a refugee ship which docked at the Greek island of Leros. The terror suspects arrived in Europe with fake passports crafted for them by ISIS forgers and accompanied by two of the Paris attackers, who killed themselves with suicide bombs outside the Stade de France stadium in Paris on November 13 last year. Together with his accomplices he was told to lay low until commands were issued for them to strike. Internet and mobile phone intercepts are understood to have led to their arrests.

They were seized with considerable amounts of American dollars and their mobiles had special communications software installed. The suspects were placed under intense surveillance for several months, including bugging their phones and tailing their every move in an operation that cost tens of thousands of pounds. Only last weekend interior minister Thomas de Maziere warned that there are more than 500 Islamic militants in Germany capable of forming themselves into independent "hit teams" to commit atrocities.

GOOGLE MAPS One of the GSG9 arrests occured in SchleSwig-Holstein bordering Denmark

He said there were at least 520 "potential attackers" in Germany - a nation on edge since two Islamic State-inspired attacks in July in which the attackers were both refugees. He said another 360 "relevant" people were known to police because of their "close proximity" to potential killers.

GETTY Thomas de Maziere warned that there are more than 500 Islamic militants ready to form 'hit teams'

His comments lend more credibility to right-wing parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD) which has for long argued that Isis fighters mingled with the 1.2 million migrants who came to Germany in the past year. "The terror threat now stems from foreign hit teams as well as fanatical lone wolves in Germany," Mr de Maiziere said in an interview with Bild newspaper. "The hit teams are secretly smuggled into Europe and prepare their actions without being noticed, as we saw with the attacks in Paris and Brussels," he added. "But it's even more difficult to uncover the fanatical lone wolves. Unfortunately, there is a real and present danger from both threats."

GETTY The AfD has seized on the attacks to criticise Chancellor Angela Merkel's migrant policies