BERLIN (AP) – Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged Thursday to do “everything humanly possible” to keep Germany safe following a string of attacks – including two carried out by asylum-seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group that she said mocked the country that took in the assailants.
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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.
The deadliest attack came on Friday when a German-Iranian teenager who was born and raised in Munich opened fire at a downtown shopping mall, killing nine people before turning the gun on himself.
Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, voiced her shock and terror at the recent attacks that have occurred throughout the country.
More than one million asylum seekers registered in Germany in 2015.
Merkel, then, called for a stricter “warning system to alert authorities” of potential terrorists during refugees’ “asylum process or integration measures”.
Dealing with the flood of refugees is a historic task Merkel said, while reiterated that Germany will make it. She also stressed that lots has already been done, echoing arguments she had made in previous speeches.
She told the German people: “We can handle this”, and there was a certain pride in German hospitality, in seeing citizens chant at Frankfurt railway station: “Say it loud, and say it clear, ‘Refugees are welcome here'”.
The German Chancellor cut her vacation short in order to hold an urgent press briefing and respond to the accusations that her open-door immigration policy was the cause for the recent terror wave, clarifying that Germany will continue to provide refuge to those in need.
The CSU government in Bavaria, where three of the attacks took place, on Thursday formulated its own counter-terrorism strategy, saying it would hire 2,000 new police officers by 2020 and introduce tougher screening of refugees. “They sow hate and fear between cultures and they sow hate and fear between religions”.
“We are facing a huge test”, said Merkel at a press conference here.
“I am still convinced today that “we can do it” – it is our historic duty and this is a historic challenge in times of globalization”, she said.
24 July: A failed Syrian asylum seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the small Bavarian town of Ansbach, injuring 15 other people. She believed that terrorists are pushing for Germany to lose their vision of what is truly important.
She said the central government would “redouble its efforts” against the terror threat, increasing staff numbers and resources for security services.
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Instead, politicians’ responses have focused on improving border security or beefing up intelligence, the Monitor notes.
