Fingerprints of Berlin attack suspect found on truck, says German minister

A newly released video shows the moments before a truck barreled into a Christmas market in Berlin this Monday, leaving 12 people dead and 48 others wounded.

Who is to blame for the Berlin Christmas market attack?

German media reported several locations were searched overnight, including a refugee home in Emmerich on the Dutch border. The search of a coach bus in the southern city of Heilbronn had similarly left the authorities empty-handed, she added.

German authorities have issued a wanted notice for Anis Amri, according to the Associated Press, that offers a reward of up to 100,000 euros, or $104,000, for information regarding the 24-year-old’s whereabouts.

Germany had rejected Amri’s asylum request, but, again, was not able to deport him because there were delays in Tunisia confirming his identity and granting him a passport – which was finally issued by Tunisia on Wednesday the 21st of December. “He didn’t go for [terrorist] reasons”.

German police and the country’s disaster response team, the Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk, were seen installing concrete barriers around the market before shoppers were allowed to return. The Berlin incident – described as the first mass-casualty attack by Islamist extremists in Germany – also represents an unsettling expansion of the IS footprint.

Bland said the mood at the market is much more subdued than it would normally be. Big crowds gathered there.

The attacks underscore the terrorists’ interest in “soft targets” – lightly secured or difficult-to-secure venues that attract throngs of people and present maximum opportunity for casualties.

Berliners and visitors have laid candles and flowers at the site in tribute.

There were also raids at a migrant centre in Emmerich in western Germany, where Amri stayed briefly previous year, and at addresses in Berlin.

State prosecutors in Berlin launched an investigation of Amri on March 14 following a tip from federal security agencies, who warned that he might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in a possible future attack.

They followed him until September, when it was decided there was not enough evidence.

Amri – who had been arrested earlier this year – was known to be a supporter of Ansar al-Sharia, the jihadist group behind the Sousse terror strike in Tunisia, and was a disciple of hate preacher Ahmad Abdelazziz A, known as Abu Walaa. He was also on the US “no-fly” list.

Amri had served four years’ jail in Italy for violent crimes and theft before entering Germany in July 2015.

Authorities said Amri has used at least six different aliases and three nationalities including Egyptian and Lebanese. The 12th victim, the hijacked truck’s Polish driver, was found shot in the cabin. A gang of terrorists must have carried out the hijacking of the semi-trailer in Berlin at the destination for its iron shipment in a busy industrial district northwest of the center in the quiet afternoon hours.