Authorities searched for Amri across Europe on Wednesday, and a reward for 100,000 euros – about $104,000 – was offered for his capture.
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“This attacker is not putting us in danger anymore”.
He was en route to Italy in August when he was arrested in Friedrichshafen with forged documents – but he was released by a judge, sources told CNN.
German officials are divided on whether the incident was committed by Islamic extremists.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière earlier declined to confirm the suspect’s identity but told reporters a manhunt had been underway across Europe since midnight. The official said the suspect was not yet in custody.
In the video, published by Islamic State’s news agency Amaq, he says: “To those infidels, who bomb the Muslims everyday, I swear that we will hunt you and slaughter you like pigs for what you do to these Muslims”. The group also provides direct services to organizations in Pakistan by mobilizing communities in the USA and Pakistan on key issues faced by the Pakistani government.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ordered a comprehensive investigation into all angles of the Berlin lorry attack, after it emerged German authorities had tracked suspect, Anis Amri, for months this year on suspicion of planning an attack.
Tunisian authorities told ABC News on Thursday that they had interviewed Amri’s father.
Investigators meanwhile are working to determine how Amri became radicalized and his travels since Monday’s attack, police said. He was “very mobile” but was mostly in Berlin since February, he said.
In mid-2016, he spoke to two IS fighters and Tunisian authorities listened in on their conversation before informing German authorities.
An axe rampage by an Afghan or Pakistani man on a train wounded five people, and a suicide bombing by Syrian asylum seeker left 15 people injured six days later.
Jaeger said he could not confirm a link to Abu Walaa. They were still trying to find out if he had accomplices. Police said that several people have been killed.
Police said the brothers, aged 28 and 31, were held in Duisburg in the industrial Ruhr region in the early hours of Friday.
The suspected driver was detained near the scene while a passenger was found dead in the truck. He had evidently planned a robbery to get money to buy automatic weapons, “possibly in order to carry out an attack”, the prosecutor said. He identified the slain driver as his cousin.
“I ask him to turn himself in to the police”.
The market is at Breitscheidplatz, close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church on the Kurfuerstendamm, a well-known avenue in the city.
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As well as sharing their condolences, they “stressed the need for European solidarity in the fight against terrorism”, Seibert said.
