Germany on Friday called on the government of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region to ensure that arms provided by Berlin were only used by Kurdish peshmerga fighting the Islamic State group.

German public broadcasters WDR and NDR reported earlier that weapons from the German military, including G3 assault rifles and various pistols, were spotted on sale in markets in northern Iraq.

A man who tried to attack a police station in Paris this month had no links to Islamist networks, German authorities said Friday after carrying out new raids in a refugee shelter where he lived.

Investigations "over the past two weeks have brought no indications of any Islamist network" connected to the man, said Uwe Jacob, police chief of North Rhine-Westphalia state.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she had obtained a pledge from Turkey to "do everything" to cut the record number of migrants arriving in Europe.

After talks with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Berlin, Merkel told reporters they had signed a joint communique under which "the Turkish government will do everything to reduce the number of refugees" crossing into the European Union.

A German-Turkish man with alleged radical Islamist ties went on trial Thursday accused of plotting a pipe bomb attack, possibly targeting a bicycle race, last year.

The 36-year-old identified only as Halil D. faces up to 10 years jail if found guilty by a state court in the western city of Frankfurt of having planned a potentially lethal attack.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday visited a contingent of German troops stationed at a Turkish air base as part of the coalition to defeat Islamic State (IS), hailing their contribution in the fight against the jihadists in Syria.

Six German Tornado reconnaissance planes have been carrying out flights since January 8 from the Incirlik base in southern Turkey, as well as an Airbus refueling plane.

A German court on Wednesday began the trial of an Islamic State "storm trooper" who allegedly helped track down deserters for the jihadist group in Syria.

Nils D., a 25-year-old German national, had traveled to Syria in October 2013, where he "took on several tasks within the Islamic State organization," prosecutor Carola Bitter said.

Germany's president said Wednesday it is "morally and politically necessary" to limit Europe's refugee influx, warning that failing to do so meant ceding ground to populists and extremists.

"Limits are not unethical: they help to maintain acceptance within society," Joachim Gauck told the world's political and economic elite gathering at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Police have arrested an Algerian asylum seeker over alleged sexual offenses during New Year's Eve festivities in Cologne, prosecutors said Monday, the first directly linked to a spate of sex crimes that shocked Germany.

Hundreds of women were groped and robbed in a 1,000-strong throng of mostly Arab and North African men outside the main railway station of the western city on the night.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's party Monday said Germany should declare Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia "safe countries of origin", making it easier to reject asylum requests by its nationals.

The conservative party's proposal comes as Germany, struggling with a mass influx of 1.1 million asylum seekers last year, has also seen arrivals spike from North African countries.

Berlin wants Algeria and Morocco to take back their nationals with no residence permits in Germany after a sharp rise in asylum seekers from the two North African countries, officials said Friday.

Alarmed by the spike in North African arrivals, German authorities want their countries of origin to help in their swift repatriations, in order to free up resources to deal with asylum seekers fleeing war and violence.