A video released by the group yesterday purportedly shows “Mohammed Riyadh” ― knife in hand ― announcing he would carry out an “operation” in Germany, and presenting himself as a “soldier of the caliphate”.
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The 17-year-old, who applied for asylum as an Afghan refugee earlier this year, used an ax and knife to injure five people, two of them seriously, late Monday.
Germany’s top security official says the country’s investigation so far into an attack on passengers aboard a regional train in Bavaria indicate the suspect acted alone.
Police are now said to be interviewing the foster family, as well as friends and coworkers, but it has been reported that a farewell letter, as well as a hand-painted ISIS flag were found in his bedroom. The teen came to Germany as an unaccompanied minor a year ago, Herrmann said.
In his speech, he reportedly claimed he would use the weapon in a slaughter to avenge the killings of people in Muslim countries and called on others who couldn’t reach IS strongholds in Syria and Iraq to conduct attacks in their own countries.
“They are highly susceptible to the easy answers of radical Islamist ideology, which empowers them to be a hero instead of an underdog”, Berger said.
A record 1.1 million people were let in to Germany past year, with Syrians making up the largest group followed by Afghans.
He said authorities were still investigating the motive of the attack and were looking into reports that the suspect had yelled out “an exclamation” during the rampage. The elder daughter of the Yau family told local media that her parents tried to defend her sister’s boyfriend when the axe-wielding teenager attacked him. De Maizière said that terrorism investigators were trying to determine whether he was truly from Afghanistan, as he claimed on his asylum application, or whether he was from a Pashto-speaking part of eastern Pakistan. He vowed in a note that he would “take revenge on these infidels”, German investigators said Tuesday.
Some 14 to 25 people were classified as “in shock” and treated at the scene after the attack, according to Alexander Gross, a police officer in Bavaria.
He was taken in by a foster family two weeks ago.
Four Hong Kong citizens were injured, including two in critical condition.
Her father and sister’s boyfriend are now in intensive care with serious head injuries. He said the assailant posted cryptic messages on the Internet a few hours before the attack, talking about enemies of Islam.
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Steffen Seibert, spokesman for the German government, warned against harbouring general suspicion towards the refugees in the wake of the train attack, saying: “A cruel attack carried out by an individual can’t discredit a group of many thousands”.
