Dusseldorf - Germany is to try three men from April 22 on charges of belonging to a terrorist gang, conspiring to murder and preparing a crime with explosives, more than 18 months after police nabbed the trio, a court spokesman said Wednesday in Dusseldorf.

The homegrown "terrorists" included two Germans who converted to Islam, Fritz Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider. The other accused, Adem Yilmaz, has Turkish citizenship. A police armed offenders squad arrested them in September 2007 after months of observation.

Also on trial is Atilla Selek, alleged to have obtained 26 detonators in Syria for the Islamist plot.

Schneider faces an additional charge of attempted murder of a policeman for grabbing a police pistol and firing it during the arrest in the village of Oberschledorn. Police say the group was affiliated with the Islamic Jihad Union, a group similar to al-Qaeda.

They were allegedly planning to set off a bomb at or near a US military base in Germany and bought chemicals, but were monitored by police and detained before they could do any harm. (dpa)