Terrorism link to Ansbach explosion can not be ruled out: German minister

A Syrian man whose asylum bid had been rejected in Germany recorded a cellphone video of himself pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group before he tried to get into an outdoor concert with a bomb-laden backpack.

Authorities said that the 27-year-old Syrian responsible for Sunday night’s attack, Mohammed Daleel, had his application for asylum refused in 2014, and was to be deported to Bulgaria.

(Xinhua/Qian Yi)The man believed to carry an explosive device was killed while 12 others were injured, three of them seriously, in the blast that took place at the entrance area of a local open-air music festival where about 2,500 people gathered.

Bomb-making materials were found alongside violent videos at the home of the Ansbach bomber, officials said.

“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.

Merkel’s govt said it was wrong to blame the liberal refugee policy for recent assaults ■ But Stephan Mayer, a deputy from Merkel’s conservative bloc, said 1.1million migrants and refugees Germany let in past year represented a “big challenge” for the police GERMANY RATTLEDOVER 660: People killed in attacks in Europe and Americas since Jan 2015.

German media reported that the doctor had been shot dead, but police in Germany said that he was actually critically ill after the shooting at the University Hospital in Steglitz, Berlin.

According to Reuters, the assailant had applied for German asylum two years ago but was rejected, in part because of run-ins with police for drug-related offenses.

“Too many refugees are arriving in Germany, there aren’t enough checks”, said Bettighofer.

For the pair, the fact that sudden violence could have struck this corner of Bavaria – at the hands of a man admitted to Germany as an asylum seeker – is certain to have a deep impact on political feeling here.

Germany was put on edge after an unprecedented series of four attacks in the last week left many dead and wounded, placing pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to stem the violence.

Seehofer says that Germany’s people “are justifiably expecting that we face this courageously”. The attack in the southern city of Ansbach on Sunday night was the fourth in Germany in a week.

“I understand that many of us are feeling insecure at the moment”, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said at a news conference Monday.

One resident there said he had occasionally drunk coffee with the attacker and they had discussed religion.

The unnamed man had repeatedly received psychiatric treatment, including twice for attempted suicide, authorities said.

Earlier on Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a pregnant woman and wounding two people with a machete in the southwestern city of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart.

The teenage gunman who slaughtered nine people in Munich on Friday had also been treated for a range of psychiatric problems in the lead-up to his attack, but had no known links to terrorism. Also last week, an Afghan refugee attacked people with an ax and a knife near the German town of Würzburg.

The federal prosecutors’ office will take over the investigation because it appears to be connected to a foreign terrorist organisation, it said in Karlsruhe.