Islamic State took responsibility for two strikes in Germany: a July 18 knife-and-ax rampage aboard a commuter train outside a Bavarian town by an Afghan teenager, and six days later, a suicide bombing outside an open-air concert, also in southern Germany, by a Syrian man facing deportation.
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Merkel, who has led Europe’s economic powerhouse for almost 11 years, sought to project calm by remaining at her holiday cottage north of Berlin this week.
Merkel returns to Berlin to hold a news conference at 12 p.m. (1100 GMT) after a spate of attacks since July 18 left 15 people dead – including four attackers – and dozens injured.
Two assailants, a Syrian asylum seeker and a refugee from either Pakistan or Afghanistan, had links to Islamist militancy, officials say. Presenting herself as a voice of reason, she added that the recent attacks were “shocking and depressing”, but not a sign that the government had lost control.
Both of the men claimed allegiance to so-called Islamic State.
Merkel said that Germany will do “everything humanly possible” to ensure security, though there will have to be a “thorough analysis” before specific new measures are drawn up.
She outlined a nine-point security plan, which she said includes a lower threshold for the deportation of failed asylum seekers, an “early warning system” for radicalization among refugees and the deployment of soldiers in domestic counterterrorism operations.
“Fear can not be the guide for political action, ” Merkel said.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann does not specify which country the person was in, and says investigators do not know his or her identity, according to the German news agency dpa.
“Thousands die in the Mediterranean and we have said two things: first that we have to legalize the flow and that is why the voluntary agreement with Turkey contains humanitarian quotas, and also…a country like Germany, as strong as Germany, cannot continue to take in such a flow of migrants and we have to limit the numbers”.
Asked why there were so many attacks in such a short time, Nassehi suggested some of the attackers may be copycats, saying that “images of violence produce further violence”.
He said parliamentary consultations about creating the Guard would begin in September “so that this force can be created as fast as possible to protect the French”, AFP reported.
Germany is on edge after four attacks in the space of week, two of which were claimed by IS.
Merkel’s aides were quick to point out that three of the four assailants arrived in Germany before the record influx that brought in more than one million refugees and migrants a year ago.
Three of them were carried out by asylum seekers.
The youth had obsessively researched mass shootings, and authorities said the attack does not appear to be linked to Islamic extremists.
She conceded this decision had allowed Islamist terrorists slip into Europe among genuine asylum seekers, but insisted her humanitarian response of a year ago remained correct.
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“What we always warned of has now happened”, Frauke Petry, head of the rightwing populist AfD party, said in a statement. But in the face of the recent attacks, her remarkable calmness might have eased some fears in the general public.
