A Syrian migrant who blew himself up outside a music festival venue in southern Germany pledged allegiance to the Islamic State extremist group in a video found on his phone, Bavaria’s top security official said in Berlin today.
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In Baden-Wuerttemberg, where a woman was killed by a Syrian attacker Sunday, Interior Minister Thomas Strobl also demanded a tougher stance toward asylum-seekers.
Last Monday, police shot and killed a 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker after he wounded five people with an ax on a train near Wuerzburg.
The Syrian who blew himself up near a music festival in southern Germany was acting on behalf of ISIL, the militant group’s Amaq agency claims.
Germany is on edge after the killing of nine people by an 18-year-old Iranian-German gunman in Munich Friday.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann says the bomber who injured 15 people and killed himself at a music festival had enough material in his room to build “at least another bomb”.
De Maiziere said the man had attempted to take his own life twice before in Germany, and had been in psychiatric care.
“He carried out the operation in response to calls to target countries of the coalition that fights the Islamic State (in Iraq and Syria)”, it said.
The Islamic State-linked Aamaq news agency said the attacker acted in response to the extremist group’s call to target countries of the USA -led coalition fighting in Iraq and Syria, The Associated Press reported.
Police, who had initially said the murder weapon was a machete, concluded that the incident in which three others were injured was likely a “crime of passion”. “After that, he announced in the name of Allah that he pledged allegiance to (ISIS chief) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the well- known Islamist leader, and announced an act of revenge against Germans because they were standing in the way of Islam”.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has ordered beefed up security at transportation hubs and elsewhere. But we also shouldn’t be careless.
Others used the crisis to point out shortcomings of the government’s security policies. German authorities could not immediately be reached to confirm whether the video was the same.
Angela Merkel, the chancellor, proudly declared a “welcoming culture” in Germany for refugees previous year.
“We were not able to register and control all the migrants that crossed the German border”, Mayer admitted.
“Neither the identities of all people that have come to us, nor their mental and physical condition are clarified”, he criticized.
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“Europe’s doors are open to those who flee war and persecution and who seek asylum, but we will defend ourselves against attacks on our way of life”, European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said in Brussels. “These are cases that came to Germany before the fall”.
