Germany identified Berlin truck attacker as a threat last February

Handout pictures released on December 21, 2016 and acquired from the web site of the German Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) Federal Crime Office show suspect Anis Amri searched in relation with the Monday's truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. Handout pictures released on December 21, 2016 and acquired from the web site of the German Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) Federal Crime Office show suspect Anis Amri searched in relation with the Monday's truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. REUTERS/BKA/Handout via Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) – German investigators identified the Tunisian man who killed 12 people in Berlin before Christmas as a threat in February last year but decided it was unlikely he would carry out an attack, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported.

Anis Amri, 24, plowed a truck through a Berlin Christmas market on Dec. 19. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, calling the assailant a “soldier” of the militant group.

The German authorities had determined Amri posed a threat after receiving intelligence showing that in early February he had been in contact with suspected members of Islamic State and offered himself as a suicide bomber, the Sueddeutsche reported.

Officials at the German Interior Ministry were not immediately available for comment.

Amri, whom Italian police shot dead in Milan on Dec. 23, had wanted to acquire weapons for an attack in Germany and sought accomplices, the Sueddeutsche said in a joint report with German broadcasters NDR and WDR, citing security documents.

However, German officials who subsequently met to decide whether to deport Amri, determined he posed no acute threat that could be presented in court.

Amri’s attack in Berlin has prompted German lawmakers to call for tougher security measures. In a New Year’s address to the nation, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Islamist terrorism is the biggest test facing Germany.

(Writing by Paul Carrel; editing by Richard Lough)

One thought on “Germany identified Berlin truck attacker as a threat last February

  1. What will it take before the leaders of the world will see the danger that many of these young men bring to those who simply want to help. We are living in a time where now good is called evil and evil is called good. Ir seems as though common sense and an understanding of the evils present has left the houses of government.

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