German Official: Islamist Motive Possibly Behind Ansbach Attack
Bavaria’s top police official says he believes that a Syrian asylum seeker who blew himself up and injured 12 people near a festival in the southern German town of Ansbach was driven by Islamic extremism.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Hermann told the German news agency dpa on July 25 that “I unfortunately think it’s very likely this really was an Islamist suicide attack.”
“The obvious intention to kill more people indicates an Islamist connection,” he added.
Police say the 27-year-old Syrian blew himself up near an open-air music festival late on July 24.
Hermann said the man was carrying a backpack filled with explosives and metal parts that could have killed many people.
The man, whose name has not been disclosed, had repeatedly received psychiatric treatment, including for attempted suicide, Herrmann said.
Earlier on July 25, the office of the Ansbach prosecutor said the attacker’s motive wasn’t clear.
“If there is an Islamist link or not is purely speculation at this point,” said the spokesman, Michael Schrotberger.
The Interior Ministry said on July 25 that the man, who arrived in Germany two years ago, had been due for deportation to Bulgaria after his application for asylum was rejected.
The attacker, who lived in Ansbach, was already known to police for a drugs-related offense.
Authorities said at least 12 people were wounded, three seriously, in the explosion. The perpetrator was killed in the blast, police said in a statement.
Police evacuated more than 2,000 from the music festival and cordoned off the area.
Germany is on edge following several recent incidents of violence.
Earlier on July 24, an asylum-seeker from Syria killed a woman with a machete and injured two other people in the southwestern city of Reutlingen before being arrested by police.
An 18-year-old German-Iranian shot dead nine people in Munich on July 22 and, on July 18, a 17-year-old asylum-seeker from Pakistan wounded five people on a train using an ax and knife.
Source: rferl.org
Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
