Germany’s elite unit to grow by a third due to terror fears

BERLIN — The head of Germany’s elite paramilitary unit says it will be increased by a third and will open a second base due to increased terror threats.

Jerome Fuchs told rbb Inforadio Monday that in addition to the GSG-9’s base near Bonn in western Germany they will add another base, likely in Berlin, “because if you look at comparable terror situations across Europe, often the capitals were affected.”

The secretive GSG-9 unit was created in response to German security services’ failure to prevent the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

It gained international fame with the storming of the Lufthansa jet ‘Landshut’ in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1977 without any loss of life among the 86 hostages or commandos.

The actual number of the unit’s members is not public but is estimated currently at 400.

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The Associated Press