The IS-linked Aamaq news agency said the man carried out the attack in response to calls by the group to target countries of the USA -led coalition that is fighting IS. The attacker, a 27-year-old Syrian denied asylum in Germany, might also have mental disorder. Chilling details have since emerged which show he had pledged allegiance to ISIS, had Islamist videos at his home and had enough chemicals to make another bomb.
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The assailant wounded 15 people, four of them seriously, in the southern city of Ansbach Sunday night when he set off the bomb in his rucksack, killing himself.
“It all appeared to be going pretty well for Merkel but the situation has changed dramatically in the 10 days between the Nice attack and Sunday’s suicide bomber in Ansbach”, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote, referring to attacks in France and Germany claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
The bombing took place at the final concert of the Ansbach Open music festival Sunday night with about 2,500 in attendance.
On Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian used a machete to kill a 45-year-old Polish woman in the southern city of Reutlingen.
Alireza Khodadadi, a man who shared the bomber’s refugee accommodation, told the N24 broadcaster that the Syrian had told him he did not identify with Islamic State ideology.
“Suddenly you heard a loud, a really loud bang, it was like an exploding sound, definitely an explosion”, he said.
Investigators say he was obsessed with mass killings, including Norwegian rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik’s 2011 massacre, and have ruled out an extremist motive.
Police said the suicide bomber meant to target the open-air festival, but was turned away as he did not have a ticket, and detonated the device outside a nearby cafe.
The ISIS-affiliated media group Amaq claimed the attacker was an ISIS “soldier” in a statement the group’s supporters posted online Monday, but there is no evidence he was in contact with ISIS or directed to carry out an attack.
The bombing was the latest of the recent attacks that have heightened concerns about how Germany can deal with the estimated 1 million migrants who entered the country previous year.
Meanwhile police released more details on Munich mall attacker David Ali Sonboly, saying the 18-year-old was depressed and had spent two months in a psychiatric unit last year.
It was the fourth attack to shake Germany in a week – three of them carried out by recent immigrants. It seems the incident would also fuel public anger against refugees already in the country – Germany had a million asylum seekers in 2015.
“More important than anything else is our unwavering commitment to our liberal beliefs”, she said, according to the European Jewish Congress.
“Of course I would and will initiate appropriate amendments if they are necessary or if I think they are necessary, but only then”, he said.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Monday cautioned Germans against indiscriminately branding all refugees a security threat after a rash of attacks over the last week. On July 18, a 17-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker wounded five people with an ax before being killed by police near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg in an attack that was also claimed by the Islamic State group.
Constant attacks have shocked Germany.
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“Last year, we gave up control of our borders and instructed police not to check everything that should have been checked”, Wendt said in an interview on German broadcaster n-tv.
