Security Stepped Up Due to 'Potential Threat' at NATO Base

Nonessential staff at air base in Germany sent home
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 23, 2024 4:50 AM CDT
Security Stepped Up Due to 'Potential Threat' at NATO Base
Soldiers check the entrance to the NATO air base, in Geilenkirchen, Germany, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, with the security alert state C sign on the left.   (Christoph Reichwein/dpa via AP)

Security at a NATO air base in western Germany has been raised because of intelligence information pointing to a "potential threat," and all staff not essential to missions have been sent home as a precaution, NATO said. The Geilenkirchen air base, near the border with the Netherlands, is where the alliance's Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, aircraft are based, the AP reports. A post on the NATO AWACS fleet's X account late Thursday night announced that "we raised the security level" but did not elaborate on the nature of the potential threat. It said that "operations continue as planned."

The Geilenkirchen base said Friday that it had nothing to add to the statement and "the situation at the moment is unchanged." Police confirmed a deployment Thursday night but gave no details. Last week, a major German air force based near Cologne was locked down for several hours amid fears that its water supply might have been tampered with. An investigation found no evidence of such sabotage. There were also reports of suspicious observations at Geilenkirchen and a person was briefly detained for questioning near the base, German news agency dpa reported at the time, but there turned out to be nothing untoward.

The incidents come at a time of jitters about the possible vulnerability of infrastructure to attempted Russian sabotage. On Thursday, prosecutors in Flensburg, in Germany's far north, said they were investigating suspicions of espionage for the purpose of sabotage, without elaborating on who might be behind it. German media reported that drones had been spotted over a chemical park in Brunsbuettel, on the North Sea coast.

(More NATO stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X