In a jarring security incident, two German soldiers were attacked by masked assailants outside NATO’s Joint Force Command headquarters in Brunssum, the Netherlands, on Monday evening. According to Der Spiegel and the dpa news agency, the attackers shouted anti-NATO slogans during the assault.
The two servicemen — a personal protection officer and a staff officer, both in plain clothes — sustained light injuries in a wooded area just outside the base. Germany’s Defense Ministry confirmed it is treating the incident as “security-related.” The attackers have not yet been identified.
The assault comes at a time of heightened tensions around NATO’s role in European security and raises fresh questions about the physical safety of alliance personnel, even in long-established host nations.
