German authorities were searching Thursday for ten persons believed to have links with the terrorist organization which allegedly masterminded a series of attacks against US facilities in the country, officials said.

August Hanning, a top official from the interior ministry, told broadcaster ARD that several suspects have German, Turkish and other origins, some of them living in Germany and others outside the country.

Hanning said the security forces dismantled the cell on Tuesday through the arrest of three suspected extremists and there is no immediate threat to the national security.

The prosecutors said it is not clear the precise role played by the ten suspects in the plan elaborated by the Islamic Jihad Union and at the moment there isn’t enough evidence to issue arrest warrants for those residing in Germany.

Yesterday, three persons suspected to be members of the Islamic Jihad Union were detained by officers from the counter-terrorism unit of the German Federal Police (GSG 9) in a the small town of Oberschledorn, North Rhine-Westphalia.

An impressive quantity of substances used to manufacter explosive devices was also found by police forces in the house rented by the suspects.

Joerg Ziercke, the chief of Germany’s federal police said two of the men are German nationals converted to Islam and the third one is a Turkish citizen. They were all allegedly trained in Pakistan and have been under close surveillance for almost six months, Ziercke added.

The police official said the three men have close ties with the terrorist cell which splintered from a larger organization in Uzbekistan and were planning large scale attacks on an airbase belonging to the US military and the Frankfurt airport.

The amount of explosive substances found indicated the attacks could have been far more destructive than the London bombings occurred in July 2005 or the ones in Madrid (2004).

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said a new project that would allow security forces to monitor the online activity of suspected terrorists should be implemented.

The authorities are concerned because of the rising number of Germans converting to Islam, studies indicating many have extremists tendencies. Approximately 3.3 million Muslims are living in Germany currently, about 15,000 having German origins.