Germany is investigating a plot by a number of people of indeterminate ideology and unknown origin, to blow up an Israeli airplane at Frankfurt Airport: German police investigate foiled plot to bomb plane.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German authorities are investigating a number of people in connection with what they suspect was a foiled plot to smuggle a bomb onto a passenger plane, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday.

German security sources said on condition of anonymity that the plane would have been at Frankfurt International Airport, one of the world’s busiest. German newspaper Die Welt cited security sources as saying the target was a plane of Israel’s El Al airline. An El Al spokeswoman in Israel said the company does not respond to reports about security matters.

Prosecutors in Karlsruhe said they were investigating six suspects whom they had identified and a number of unidentified suspects. None of the names have been made public.

Several of the suspects had approached someone during the summer who had access to the security department at a German airport and who had expressed willingness to smuggle a suitcase or bag onto a plane for payment, a statement said. The suspects repeatedly made contact with the person but were unable to agree on a price for planting a bomb, it said. Die Welt said the person was a male employee of Frankfurt airport.

“The suspects were temporarily taken into custody and informed of the suspicions against them before they were released on Saturday, with the exception of one wanted in connection with another crime,” the office said.

The men are suspected of being members of a terrorist organization, the office said. It did not explain why the suspects, who remain under investigation, had been released.

“I can’t comment on the particularities about the decision to release them,” said a spokesman for the interior ministry. Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency also declined comment.

UPDATE at 11/20/06 8:41:57 am:

Imagine my surprise to discover that this investigation involves, of all things, an Islamic terror cell: Terror cell nabbed in El Al bomb plot.