Tag Archives: Germany

Bavarian bomber called in video for more attacks: SITE

German officials after bombing

BERLIN (Reuters) – A Syrian man who injured 15 people when he blew himself up in southern Germany – an attack claimed by Islamic State – called in a video for further attacks, U.S. monitoring group SITE reported, citing Islamic State’s Amaq news agency.

The attack that took place on Sunday outside a music festival in Ansbach, a town of 40,000 people southwest of Nuremberg, was the fourth act of violence by men of Middle Eastern or Asian origin against German civilians in a week.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said on Monday that a video had been found on the bomber’s mobile phone in which he pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

SITE quoted the man in the video saying he was on a “martyrdom-seeking operation” in Ansbach, and calling for more attacks.

He said the attack in Ansbach was in response to “crimes committed by the Coalition in collaboration with Germany by bombing and killing men, women, and children”.

In December the German parliament approved plans to join the military campaign against Islamic State in Syria in a mission that includes sending reconnaissance jets, a frigate, refuelling aircraft and military personnel. But Germany has not joined countries like Britain, France, the United States and Russia in conducting airstrikes.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Syrian refugee arrested for killing pregnant woman with machete

Police stand outside where a 21-year-old Syrian refugee killed a woman with a machete and injured two other people in the city of Reutlingen, Germany

By Andrea Shalal

BERLIN (Reuters) – A 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested on Sunday after killing a pregnant woman with a machete in Germany, the fourth violent assault on civilians in western Europe in 10 days, though police said it did not appear linked to terrorism.

The incident, however, may add to public unease surrounding Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy that has seen over a million migrants enter Germany over the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

German police said they arrested the machete-wielding Syrian asylum-seeker after he killed a woman and injured two other people in the southwestern city of Reutlingen near Stuttgart.

The Syrian had been involved in previous incidents causing injuries to others, and had apparently acted alone, a police spokesman said.

“Given the current evidence, there is no indication that this was a terrorist attack,” a police statement said.

“The attacker was completely out of his mind. He even ran after a police car with his machete,” the mass-circulation Bid newspaper quoted a witness as saying. A motorist knocked down the attacker soon afterward and he was then taken into custody by police, the witness told Bid. The police spokesman said the man was being interrogated after receiving medical treatment.

Neither Sunday’s attack nor a shooting rampage by an 18-year-old Iranian-German man that killed nine people in Munich on Friday bore any sign of connections with terrorism, police said.

The Islamist militant Telegram channel, however, seized the moment to urge more “lone wolf” attacks. “Perhaps (any) small attack you do may add to the cause for the disbelieving (governments) to finally retreat from attack or oppressing Muslim lands,” the group said in an online post, according to the SITE Intelligence Group monitoring organization.

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for both a July 18 ax attack by a 17-year-old refugee that injured five people near Nuremburg in southern Germany, and a July 14 attack in which a Tunisian man drove a truck into Bastille Day holiday crowds in the French city of Nice, killing 84 people.

MANY ATTACKS PRE-EMPTED IN GERMANY

Unlike neighbors France and Belgium, Germany has not suffered a major deadly attack by Islamist militants in recent years, though security officials say they have thwarted a large number of plots.

But opposition critics pin the blame for any violent attacks by migrants on Merkel’s liberal refugee policy.

A leader of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD)posted a Twitter message after the Munich shooting that said, “Merkel’s unity party: thank you for the terror in Germany and Europe!” The message was later deleted.

The gunman, identified by investigative sources as David Sonboly, opened fire near a busy shopping mall, killing nine people and wounding 35 more, before turning his pistol on himself as police approached several hours later.

Bavarian state investigators said materials found in his home showed the gunman had begun plotting the attack a year ago after visiting the site of a 2009 school shooting in southwest Germany in which 15 people were killed.

Munich police on Sunday arrested a 16-year-old Afghan youth as a possible “tacit accomplice” to the shooting and said he was suspected of having failed to report the gunman’s plans.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a member of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats, pledged to review both gun laws and security policies and seek improvements where needed.

But De Maiziere, a strong advocate of increased video surveillance, said German gun laws were already very strict and it was critical to understand how the attacker had obtained his pistol.

Bavarian state officials said on Sunday the Munich gunman bought his reactivated 9mm Glock 17 pistol – the most widely used law enforcement weapon worldwide – on the dark net, a part of the Internet accessible only via special software.

German lawmaker Stephan Mayer, a spokesman for Merkel’s conservatives in parliament, told Reuters he supported stricter regulations on the weapons trade and the creation of a European weapons registry modeled on the German national registry.

Burkhard Lischka, a spokesman for the Social Democrats in parliament, told Die Welt newspaper: “We must put a spotlight on the dark net. We have to give our security agencies the staffing and financial resources to stop this illegal trade.”

The European Union is considering reforms that would tighten gun controls within the 28-nation bloc and make it easier to trace the origin of weapons bought legally.

The proposed changes, which must still be enacted by EU member states, would also set more stringent rules for deactivating previously fully-functioning guns and making them available for sale.

(Additional reporting by John Walcott in Washington, Markus Wacket and Andreas Rinke in Berlin; editing by Mark Heinrich)

Gunmen launch deadly attack on Munich shopping mall, still on the run

Special forces stand guard in front of Munich Mall

By Joern Poltz

MUNICH (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked a busy shopping mall in the German city of Munich on Friday evening, spraying bullets as people fled in horror for safety from what police said was a terrorist attack.

Police said six people had been killed and the attackers were still at large. They told the public to get off the streets as the city – Germany’s third biggest – went into lockdown, with transport halted and highways sealed off.

As special forces rushed to the scene, some people remained holed up in the Olympia shopping center.

“Many shots were fired, I can’t say how many but it’s been a lot,” said a shop worker hiding in a store room inside the mall. The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she had seen a shooting victim on the floor who appeared to be dead or dying.

A worker at a different shop, Harun Balta, said: “We are still stuck inside the mall without any information, we’re waiting for the police to rescue us.”

It was the third major act of violence against civilians in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

Munich police spokeswoman said six people were killed and an undetermined number wounded. No suspects had been arrested yet, she said.

“We believe there was more than one perpetrator. The first reports came at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT), the shooting apparently began at a McDonald’s in the shopping center. There are still people in the shopping center. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them,” the spokeswoman said.

Bavarian broadcaster BR said six people were dead and many wounded in the shopping mall. Munich police said on Facebook that witnesses reported three different gunmen armed with rifles.

A video posted online – whose authenticity could not be confirmed – showed a man dressed in black outside a McDonalds by the roadside, drawing a handgun and shooting towards members of the public.

Police said witnesses had seen shooting both inside the mall and on nearby streets.

The shopping center is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Munich’s main railway station was also evacuated. BR said police had also sealed off many highways north of Munich had been shut down and people were told to leave them.

IS SUPPORTERS CELEBRATE

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but supporters of Islamic State celebrated the rampage on social media.

“Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men,” read one tweet.

“The Islamic state is expanding in Europe,” read another.

Friday’s attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an ax rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper’s Friday edition before the mall attack that there was “no reason to panic but it’s clear that Germany remains a possible target”.

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Breivik is a hero for far-right extremists in Europe and America.

The Munich assault was also reminiscent of Islamist militant attacks in a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013 and in Mumbai, India, in November 2008.

(Reporting by Tina Bellon, Andrea Shalal, Christina Amann, Editing and writing by Robin Pomeroy and Angus MacSwan)

Islamic State supporters hail deadly Munich shooting on social media

Police in Munich getting to shooting scene

CAIRO (Reuters) – Supporters of the Islamic State militant group celebrated on social media a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich on Friday that killed and wounded many people.

“Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men,” read one tweet in Arabic on an account that regularly favors the radical Islamist movement.

“The Islamic state is expanding in Europe,” read an Arabic-language tweet on another account also known to support Islamic State.

The attack was the third major act of violence against civilian targets in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by Islamic State and Munich police said they suspected the latest assault was a terrorist attack.

Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall in the Bavarian capital but many others were hiding inside.

A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded. “We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage,” the spokeswoman said.

Bavarian broadcaster BR said six people were dead and many wounded in the shopping mall. NTV television reported the state’s interior ministry as saying three people were dead, but the ministry said later it would not confirm this.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-wielding teenager went on a rampage on a German train, wounding four people before he was shot dead. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Amina Ismail; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Multiple deaths at shooting rampage in German shopping mall: police

Police meet at scene of shooting rampage in Munich

By Joern Poltz

MUNICH (Reuters) – Gunmen went on a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich on Friday, killing and wounding many people, police said.

Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall but many others were hiding inside.

The Bavarian Interior Ministry said three people were dead, NTV television reported. A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded.

“We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage,” the spokeswoman said.

More than one gunman was believed to be involved and no one had been arrested, she said.

“We believe there was more than one perpetrator. The first reports came at 6 p.m., the shooting apparently began at a McDonald’s in the shopping center. There are still people in the shopping center. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them.”

Police special forces had arrived at the scene, NTV said.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-wielding teenager went on a rampage on a German train. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Staff in the mall were still in hiding, an employee told Reuters by telephone.

“Many shots were fired, I can’t say how many but it’s been a lot,” the employee, who declined to be identified, said from the mall in Munich.

“All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn’t survive,”

“We have no further information, we’re just staying in the back in the storage rooms. No police have approached us yet.”

Munich transport authorities said they had halted several bus, train and tram lines.

The shopping center is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Friday’s attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an axe rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper’s Friday edition before the mall attack that there was “no reason to panic but it’s clear that Germany remains a possible target”.

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.

There was, however, no immediate word that the attack was politically motivated.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Breivik is a hero for far-right extremists in Europe and America.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Angus MacSwan)

Most Germans fear terrorist attack after train ax assault: poll

German emergency services

BERLIN (Reuters) – More than three-quarters of Germans believe their country will soon be the target of terrorism, a survey showed on Friday, after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a train in an ax attack claimed by Islamic State.

Seventy-seven percent expect an attack to happen soon, up from 69 percent two weeks ago, according to the survey compiled by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for broadcaster ZDF.

Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said investigations suggested he was a “lone wolf” who had been spurred into action by Islamic State propaganda.

The ax rampage came days after a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing 84 in an attack also claimed by the jihadist group.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper’s Friday edition that there was “no reason to panic but it’s clear that Germany remains a possible target”.

The survey of 1,271 respondents, which showed 20 percent do not expect an attack soon, was conducted during the three days following the train attack.

It also showed 59 percent think enough is being done to protect them from terrorism – almost twice as many as think they should be better protected.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; editing by John Stonestreet)

Islamic State flag found in room of German train attacker

German emergency services workers work in the area where a man with an axe attacked passengers on a train near Wuerzburg

By Jens Hack

MUNICH (Reuters) – Police found a hand-painted Islamic State flag and a text written partly in Pashto in the room of a young Afghan refugee who attacked passengers on a train in southern Germany with an axe, a state minister said on Tuesday.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said it was too early to say whether the youth was a member of Islamic State or any other militant group. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, according to its Amaq news agency.

“We are aware of the claim of responsibility by Islamic State, but…the investigation has not produced any evidence thus far that would indicate this young man was part of an Islamist network,” Herrmann told a news conference.

The 17-year-old severely wounded four Hong Kong residents, one of whom remains in a critical condition, on the train late on Monday, and then injured a local woman after fleeing before police shot him dead.

The attack took place days after a Tunisian delivery man plowed a truck into crowds of Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 84. Islamic State has also claimed responsibility for that incident.

The case is likely to deepen worries about so-called “lone wolf” attacks in Europe and could put political pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has welcomed hundreds of thousands of migrants to Germany over the past year.

A leader of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) said Merkel and her supporters were to blame for the dangerous security situation because their “welcoming policies had brought too many young, uneducated and radical Muslim men to Germany”.

MOTIVES

Herrmann said people who knew the attacker had described him as a “quiet and balanced person who went to the mosque for important holidays, but wasn’t necessarily there every week.”

“He was described as a devout Muslim, but not in any way one who was a radical or fanatic,” Herrmann added.

At least one witness reported that the attacker, who had been living with a foster family in the nearby town of Ochsenfurt, had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

Herrmann told Reuters TV that a hand-painted IS flag was found among his belongings when police searched his home, as well as a text that included references to Islam and the “need to resist”, according to an initial translation from the Afghan language of Pashto.

He said the text was subject to interpretation, and stressed that the attack was no reason to cast suspicion on other refugees or for Germans to stop living their lives normally.

“Some things clearly point to an Islamist background, but there is no evidence at this point connecting him to any other individuals, or indicating whether he radicalized himself,” Herrmann said. “That must all still be investigated.”

He started attacking his passengers with an axe and a knife around 9 p.m. local time as the train was approaching its last stop, the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, Herrmann said.

The attacker, who came to Germany as an unaccompanied minor two years ago, fled into the town of Heidingsfeld after the emergency brake was pulled. He was pursued by a police unit and shot dead after attacking a woman and trying to assault the police officers, Herrmann said.

Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying condemned the attack, which he said injured four of five members of a Hong Kong family that was on holiday in Germany. Herrmann said the family had visited the medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber before the attack.

Leung’s office said Hong Kong and Chinese officials were in touch with the German embassy to follow up on the case, and representatives were en route to visit the family.

Unlike neighbors France and Belgium, Germany has not been the victim of a major attack by Islamic militants in recent years, although security officials say they have thwarted a large number of plots.

Germany welcomed about 1 million migrants in 2015, including thousands of unaccompanied minors. Many were fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

(This story corrects paragraph 15 to show name of town is Heidingsfeld, not Heiligenfeld)

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber, Noah Barkin, Andrea Shalal, Caroline Copley, Michelle Martin and Gernot Heller, and Jens Hack in Munich and Reuters TV; Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Germany girds for potential spike in Islamic State attacks

Police barrier is pictured at the train station in Grafing

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government voiced concern on Tuesday that Islamic State could step up attacks in Europe as it loses territory in Iraq and Syria, and said its domestic intelligence agency is training to respond to a large-scale assault.

Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere welcomed gains made by a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, but said they were not diminishing the risk of attacks in Europe.

“On the contrary, we fear that Islamic State will externalize, transfer its activities to Europe, especially because of military losses in the region,” the minister, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic party, told reporters.

Germany has been on high alert for possible large-scale militant incidents – potentially including military-style weapons – since the IS attacks in Paris last November and Brussels in March, Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of the BfV domestic intelligence agency, told the same news conference.

He said the agency had carried out several exercises to prepare for such events, and several attacks had already been thwarted. Three Syrian men were earlier this month suspected of planning large-scale attacks in Duesseldorf.

Maassen said the agency was also vigilant for potential lone-wolf attacks, self-radicalized individuals, and possible militants smuggled in under the cover of over one million mostly Muslim refugees that have entered Germany over the past year.

He said authorities had identified clear evidence against 17 individuals who had entered Germany disguised as refugees, and most were either dead or had been arrested. “We must keep a particularly close eye on this group of people,” he said.

Authorities were checking tips about a total of 400 potential Islamists among the refugees, but most of those had turned out to be false claims made by other refugees, he said.

De Maiziere said the rate of Islamists leaving Germany to join Islamic State in Iraq and Syria had slowed, but remained troubling. A total of 820 such people were now believed to have departed Germany for the region, up from 780 at the end of December, with about one-third estimated to have returned.

About 60 of those who had tried to reach the region were under the age of 18, and 20 of those that actually succeeded were girls, Maasen said.

At the same time, Germany has seen sharp increases in the number of ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafists in recent years, with the total number of sympathizers now seen at 8,900, up from 7,000 at the end of 2014, German officials said.

De Maiziere said it was important to reintegrate the so-called “foreign fighters” who returned to Germany, some of whom were highly radicalized, while others were disillusioned.

(This version of the story corrects the spelling of the name in paras 4 and 10)

(Reporting by Thorsten Severin and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Germany sees rise in far-right violence

Members of Germany's technical support unit fix wooden boards to a building used to house asylum seekers after a fire broke out

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany saw a sharp rise in far-right violence in 2015, a year in which it took in more than one million migrants, according to a report on Tuesday that called for concrete steps to avert the emergence of what it called “right-wing terrorist structures”.

The annual report prepared by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said the number of far-right violent acts jumped to 1,408 in 2015, an increase of more than 42 percent from 990 in the previous year. The incidents included attacks against journalists and politicians and attempted murder.

The report also chronicled 75 arson attacks against refugee centers in 2015, up from just five a year earlier.

Germany was home to an estimated 11,800 violent far-right extremists, the report said, roughly half of the total number of far-right individuals in the country.

“Current investigations against the suspected development of terrorist groups points to the possible emergence of right-wing terrorist structures in Germany and the need for the government to take rigorous action,” the interior ministry said in a statement accompanying the report.

Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere said Germany was seeing a rise in both far-right and far-left extremism and a growing willingness among activists from both sides to use violence.

“It is worrying that anti-immigration incitement is creeping into the heart of our society,” he said in the statement.

The report said the violent acts against immigrants did not generally appear to be systematically orchestrated, though many of the arson attacks did bear signs of careful planning and preparation.

However, German authorities recently broke up a suspected far-right militant group known as “Oldschool Society” and there are concerns that similar groups could emerge elsewhere.

Last year Germany took in more than one million migrants, the majority of them Muslims fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. The influx has put pressure on public services and raised fears of increased ethnic and religious tensions.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Police shoot dead masked man who took hostages in German cinema

German special police during hostage situation

By Ralf Banser

VIERNHEIM, Germany (Reuters) – A masked man took hostages at a cinema in western Germany on Thursday before police stormed the complex and shot him dead, police said.

No other people were injured, a police spokesman said.

The attacker, who carried a rifle or “long gun”, acted alone and appeared to have been a “disturbed man”, the interior minister of Hesse state, Peter Beuth, told the regional parliament.

Police had not identified the man or established his motive, spokesman Bernd Hochstaedter said, adding that nothing immediately pointed to him having a militant background.

German television showed pictures of heavily-armed police, wearing helmets and body armor, storming the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim, south of Frankfurt, and a couple fleeing the building.

Cinema employee Guri Blakaj told Reuters the gunman, who appeared to be aged between 18 and 25 and was about 1.7 meters tall, entered the cinema at around 3 p.m. and told workers to get into an office.

He then went into a cinema theater. Blakaj, who said there were about six workers and 30 cinemagoers in the building, then heard shots fired.

Police special forces stormed the building and shot him.

There was still a heavy police presence at the scene into the late afternoon, and a helicopter circled overhead.

(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers, Michael Nienaber and Sabine Siebold; Editing by Andrew Roche)