Chancellor Angela Merkel says the fact that two men who came to Germany as refugees carried out attacks claimed by the Islamic State group “mocks the country that took them in”.
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She said the assailants “wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need”.
The attacks in Germany have led to accusations from Ms Merkel’s foes and even some allies that her open-door refugee policy is to blame after over a million migrants entered the country in the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
Within the space of a week, Germany has been rocked by an axe attack on a train, a mass shooting in Munich that left nine dead, a machete attack in which a pregnant woman was killed and a suicide bomb in Ansbach.
Mrs Merkel, who interrupted her summer holiday to hold the news conference in Berlin, said the asylum seekers who had carried out the attacks had “shamed the country that welcomed them”.
Three were committed by asylum seekers, and two of those are being investigated for links to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISSI/ISIL).
She said Germany would stick to its principles and continue to grant asylum protection to those fleeing wars.
At the same time, she said Germany must improve the process for repatriation of migrants whose asylum applications had been rejected.
The chancellor cut short her vacation to schedule her annual summer news conference – only her second public appearance in the past week.
Her refusal to budge is likely to hurt her Christian Democratic Party at the ballot box when elections take place in her home state this September.
On the same day, another alleged Syrian refugee attacked several people with a long knife in a town near Stuttgart, killing one person and injuring two others.
Germans hit back at Merkel’s “we can make it” line by posting statements such as “unfortunately we cannot ask the victims of the recent attacks whether they see it exactly the same way”.
And on Sunday, a Syrian failed asylum seeker blew himself up outside a music festival, wounding 15 people at a nearby cafe after being turned away from the packed open-air venue. Merkel said “it is now time” for soldiers to undergo the training they require to be “integrated” into the fight against terrorism.
She acknowledged the shocking nature of the terror attacks, including three by refugees seeking asylum in Germany.
But she offered few details on new measures, which she said would be discussed in the days and weeks ahead.
The attacks have stoked concerns about an unprecedented immigration flow into Germany, as well as drawing strong criticism for Merkel’s administration for failing to properly address national security issues associated with it.
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The bloodiest incident, a shooting spree in Munich on July 22 that killed 10 people including the shooter, was unrelated to global terrorism.
