An Iraqi man who spent time in jail for membership in an Islamist terrorist group was shot dead by German police Thursday after he stabbed and seriously wounded a policewoman.
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German officials arrested the Iraqi national in December 2004 for suspected involvement in a plot by the group Ansar al-Islam to assassinate former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi when he came to Berlin.
The officer, who was also struck in the kidney by a stray bullet, was rushed to A&E where she underwent emergency surgery but she is now stable in intensive care.
In the 2008 case, Rafik Mohamad Yousef was one of the three Iraqi men convicted in the terror plot.
Police were called after reports that a man was waving a knife about on a street in the Spandau district.
The assailant died in the ambulance leaving the scene.
Yousef, 41, was convicted to eight years in jail in 2008 on charges of belonging to of Ansar al-Islam, radical Islamic group linked to al-Qaida.
In 2013 Yousef was freed on bail, but was sentenced to wearing an electronic tag around his ankle for monitoring, which he apparently removed before the attack.
For several hours after the incident, police were treating it as a random act of violence by a mentally disturbed man.
The 41-year-old man attacked the female officer with the weapon before another officer shot and killed him.
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Until now, Berlin has not seen major Islamic terror attacks such as the 7/7 Tube bombings in London or the Charlie-Hebdo shootings in Paris.
