A Syrian man who tried unsuccessfully to claim asylum in Germany pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and vowed the nation’s people “won’t be able to sleep peacefully anymore” in a cell phone video before blowing himself up outside a wine bar, wounding 15 people, authorities said Monday.
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Herrmann said the man, carrying a backpack, had apparently been denied entry to the Ansbach Open music festival shortly before the explosion, the website reported.
“A provisional translation by an interpreter shows that he expressly announces, in the name of Allah, and testifying his allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a famous Islamist leader, an act of revenge against the Germans because they’re getting in the way of Islam”, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Hermann said.
Top security officials in Germany called Tuesday for tougher security screening of asylum-seekers and also announced that more police officers will be hired following four attacks in the country in the span of a week – two of them claimed by the extremist Islamic State group.
The fact he was an asylum-seeker will renew pressure on Angela Merkel over her “open-door” refugee policy, under which more than 1 million migrants entered Germany a year ago.
Citizens continue to place blame for the increasing violence at Chancellor Angela Merkel’s feet since she implemented an open-door refugee policy – but playing the blame game changes nothing.
All of Germany is on edge and wondering when and where the next attack will take place.
Police said the attacker had also been known for drug possession.
In claiming responsibility for the bombing, the Islamic State said the attack was carried out by one of its “soldiers”. Earlier today, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Ansbach said the attacker’s motive wasn’t clear.
Thomas de Maiziere, Germany’s interior minister, said most asylum-seekers had come to Germany to escape persecution, and it was important to remember that only a tiny minority had links to terrorism. State police said on Saturday the shooter was neither a refugee nor known to have terror links, but had been receiving psychiatric treatment.
He was facing imminent deportation to Bulgaria, where he was first registered as an asylum seeker, an interior ministry spokesman said.
Europe’s economic powerhouse was already reeling after nine people died in a shopping center shooting rampage in Munich on Friday, and four people were wounded in an axe attack on a train in Wurzburg on July 18.
Extremist videos have been found in Mohammad’s apartment, and Nuremberg police have also uncovered diesel, paint thinner, pebbles, hydrochloric acid, batteries and alcohol in his room – all materials which were used to construct the bomb used in Ansbach.
Asked how similar attacks could best be prevented, de Maiziere said it was important to ensure that new arrivals be well-integrated quickly into German society.
On the same day, July 24, a 21-year-old asylum seeker from Syria killed a woman with a machete and heavily injured two other people.
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They said in a statement that security staff noticed the man with the backpack near the entrance of the concert site around 9:45 p.m. The 27-year-old Syrian blew himself up after being turned away from an open-air music festival. “This morning there were a lot of police cars, and so I felt that ‘yes, this is how it was in Jerusalem when I was there previous year.’…”
