BERLIN (REUTERS) - Germany's federal prosecutor on Friday charged a 26-year-old German man, described as a radical Islamist, with planting a pipe bomb in Bonn train station in 2012 and intending to kill as many people as possible. The bomb did not explode.

The man, named only as Marco G., was also charged with planning to assassinate the leader of a far-right anti-Muslim political party, Pro-NRW, with three accomplices, a 43-year-old Albanian man, a 25-year-old German-Turkish citizen, and a 24-year-old German.

The group had bought guns and a silencer to prepare for the assassination, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. They were also charged with planning further attacks on Pro-NRW.

Marco G. had taken his home-made bomb, hidden in a sports bag, to Bonn station and left it on a platform. Due to the bomb's faulty construction, however, it never detonated.

In 2006, two suitcase bombs left by Islamist militants on commuter trains in Cologne failed to explode.

Germany faces an increased threat of attack, officials say, because about a dozen German jihadis have returned from fighting in Syria, prepared to use their knowledge of weapons and bomb-making for attacks in the West.