German police arrest Tunisian suspected of plotting jihadist attack

German police Wednesday arrested a Tunisian man suspected of recruiting for the Islamic State group and planning an attack, as they carried out sweeping raids in the west of the country.

A total of 54 offices, homes and mosques were targeted in the dawn raids in and around Frankfurt in the state of Hesse, the prosecutors' office in Frankfurt said.

The 36-year-old Tunisian is suspected of recruiting and leading a 16-member cell of the Islamic State jihadist group that was "planning an attack in Germany... but which was foiled at an early stage without a target being chosen" it said in a statement.

More than 1,000 police were involved in the raids, said Peter Beuth, the interior minister of the Hesse region.

The operation came a day after police in Berlin arrested three suspected jihadists accused of planning to travel to foreign "war zones", likely to be either Iraq or Syria.

The three frequented the same mosque attended by a Tunisian man suspected of ploughing a hijacked lorry into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12. The December 19 attack was claimed by IS.