On February 1, 2017, German police launched a major counter-terrorism operation in the western state of Hesse. A grand total of 54 locations were raided in search of of more than a dozen Islamic State supporters and sympathisers.

Last Wednesday’s searches were carried out in the cities of Frankfurt am Main, Offenbach am Main, Darmstadt, Limburg an der Lahn, and Wiesbaden. Additional raids were carried out in a number of locations in Offenbach district, Groß-Gerau district, Marburg-Biedenkopf district, and Main-Taunus district.

Investigations began with the arrest of a 28 year old Russian man who was suspected of planning an attack and have wanted to join the Islamic State in Syria. The Islamic State’s network has been dealt with due to raids on more than 50 mosques, apartments and businesses in Germany

“9/11 had scared everybody badly, to the point where people get irrational and paranoid. I can understand that, but in the US, it’s a different story than in Germany. Germany is currently taking many people from the Middle East, Syria specifically (if I can remember correctly.) I believe that it is something to keep track of, but it must be well reasoned before taking action,” sophomore Jordan Hess said.

This one night took 4 months of planning and 1,100 officers with 150 involved 24/7. 16 alleged terrorist supporters have been arrested. It was reported that they may have been in an early stage to attack. Along with the 16 arrested, a Tunisian man, who was an Islamic State recruiter and smuggle,r was arrested in a Frankfurt raid. Tunisian officials also suspect the man of involvement in a deadly attack on a museum in his homeland in 2015.

The spokesman for Tunisia’s national prosecutor, Sofiane Selliti, said “Authorities were awaiting formal identification from Germany to confirm that the suspect is the man sought and to begin formal extradition proceedings.”

In a separate case, prosecutors in Berlin said that they arrested three people Tuesday night suspected of planning to travel to Syria or Iraq to receive explosives and weapons training with the Islamic State.

“All three were associated with the Fussilet mosque in Berlin, known as a gathering point for radicals,” said Martin Steltner, a spokesman for prosecutors.

Targeted suspects between the ages of 16 and 46 in these raids. It was not immediately clear whether all of them were arrested during the raids, which were carried out at homes, businesses, and mosques.Germany has been on a heightened state of alert due to two attacks in July that were claimed by ISIL.

Randon Peyo, a junior at Jefferson Morgan, said “Maybe if more raids were conducted, Brussels would’ve never happened. Although that could seem kind of a boy who cried wolf, similar to what was seen during the Red Scare, because I think with the way of how society is so scared of anything. If America were to have another scare it would be detrimental to our society.”

Due to these findings Germany’s Cabinet approved a plan to allow police to make suspects that are deemed a possible security threat to wear electronic ankle monitors. This is only a part of a package of measures meant to avoid a repeat of mistakes made in keeping track of Anis Amri, a Tunisian man who killed 12 people in his rampage on December 19.