BERLIN: The NATO air base within the German city of Geilenkirchen remained at excessive alert on Friday (Aug 23), a spokesperson mentioned, after the safety stage was raised in a single day “primarily based on intelligence info indicating a possible menace”.
“We’re nonetheless at Charlie,” a spokesperson for the bottom instructed Reuters, referring to the second-highest of 4 states of alert.
Safety stage Charlie is outlined as “an incident has occurred or intelligence has been obtained indicating that some type of terrorist motion in opposition to NATO organisations or personnel is very doubtless”.
The spokesperson mentioned the bottom housing NATO’s fleet of AWACS surveillance planes was working with minimal staffing as a precautionary measure as operations continued as deliberate.
She added there was no connection to an incident final week when the safety stage on the base was briefly raised as a navy base in close by Cologne investigated a suspected sabotage of the water provide.
The identical day, the bottom in Geilenkirchen additionally reported an tried trespassing incident that prompted a full sweep of the premises.
With regard to the suspected sabotage on the base in Cologne, the German navy later gave the all-clear, saying check outcomes had proven that the faucet water was not contaminated.
NATO has warned previously of a marketing campaign of hostile actions staged by Russia, together with acts of sabotage and cyberattacks. Russia has recurrently accused NATO of threatening its safety.
In June, NATO Secretary-Common Jens Stoltenberg mentioned the Western navy alliance noticed a sample evolving and that latest assaults had been a results of Russian intelligence turning into extra energetic.
A number of incidents on NATO territory have been handled as suspicious by analysts in recent times, amongst them the severance of an important undersea cable connecting Svalbard to mainland Norway in 2022.
