Germany Releases Berlin Attack Suspect as ISIS Claims Involvement

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Germany Releases Berlin Attack Suspect as ISIS Claims Involvement


By MELISSA EDDY and ALISON SMALEDEC. 20, 2016

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• Angela Merkel’s government.
  
  On a chaotic day of grief and uncertainty, after 12 people were killed and dozens injured on Monday, leaders of the country’s rising far-right Alternative for Germany party assailed the chancellor in blunt, visceral terms, describing the victims as “Merkel’s dead.”
  
  The attack, which saw a driver steer a speeding tractor-trailer through crowds of shoppers at a popular Christmas market in central Berlin, is already reshaping what promises to be a tumultuous European political year in 2017. Mr. Merkel is the most powerful defender of the reeling European Union, yet such a bloody terror attack on German soil is certain to complicate her campaign for a fourth term in office. The prospect that she could be weakened, or voted out, would be potentially devastating for the bloc.
  

The German fight against terrorism, which has proved to be uneven, is not helping her. It was only two months ago when the authorities in the state of Saxony failed to catch a dangerous suspect who was preparing bombs in his apartment and arrested him only after three plucky Syrians caught the man, who then committed suicide in custody.

Beyond politics, the assault made plain that Germany, like France and Belgium, is now a primary European target for mass terror attacks. On Tuesday evening, the Islamic State issued a statement through its Amaq news agency describing the driver of the truck as “a soldier.” But the group offered no other details about the driver’s identity, or whether he had directly interacted with it or was just sympathetic to it.

The day began with what seemed to be a breakthrough, as the authorities announced that they were interrogating a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker, arrested the previous night, who arrived in Germany last December. Yet within hours, doubts arose that he was the perpetrator, and by evening the federal prosecutor said the man had been released because there was no evidence linking him to the crime. An examination of the cab of the truck turned up no sign that he had been in it, the prosecutor said.



TERROR ATTACKS IN EUROPE By REUTERS 1:47
Merkel: ‘This Is a Very Difficult Day’
Video
Merkel: ‘This Is a Very Difficult Day’
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said that, for now, it must be assumed that a truck's plowing into a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday night, killing 12 people, was an act of terrorism.

By REUTERS. Photo by Tobias Schwarz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. Watch in Times Video »

• symbolic site whose spire, jagged from bomb damage, was intentionally left unrepaired after World War II. Among those who came were a group of 60 to 70 members of a local mosque.
  
  “We wanted to show our solidarity,” said Hasnen Ahmad, a member of the group, “and that our community stands for peace.”
  
  Throughout the day, the German authorities expanded their investigation, even as they offered few details and apparently made fewer breakthroughs. At one point, the authorities pleaded with the public to turn over any videos or other evidence taken from the market during the attack.
  
  A basic chronology did emerge: The attacker first hijacked a heavy truck belonging to a Polish company that was en route to Berlin bearing a load of steel girders. At some point, he apparently killed the driver and then, with the body still in the cab, sped east past Berlin’s Zoo Station and onto Budapester Strasse, a main thoroughfare.
  
  At about 8 p.m. on Monday, the driver swerved off the street and plowed through the Christmas market, steering between the rows of temporary wooden stands, which typically sell items such as handmade Christmas ornaments or mulled wine. Like most Christmas markets in the Germany, this one was packed with shoppers, who suddenly tried to flee in horror.
  
  After traveling at least 50 yards, striking scores of people and leaving behind a trail of shattered wood and glass, the truck swerved back toward the street, coming to a stop after it struck a wooden structure, according to German press reports.
  
  Photo
  
  
  
  Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Tuesday at the site of the Christmas market attack in Berlin.CreditHannibal Hanschke/Reuters
  German officials are normally tight-lipped about high-profile investigations, preferring to withhold any information until they have clear answers. Little was known about the 12 victims of the attacks, or the wounded, though an Italian and an Israeli may have been among the victims.
  
  Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, an Italian transportation specialist who has been living in Germany for three years, was missing and her father feared the worst, after her cellphone and transit pass were found near the market.
  
  “We are here with my wife, waiting for the DNA results,” Gaetano Di Lorenzo told Corriere della Serra, an Italian newspaper. “We are waiting for confirmation, but I am not deluding myself.”
  
  In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack “may have claimed the life of an Israeli citizen,” a reference to a missing woman, Dalia Elkayam, whose husband, Rami Elkayam, was injured in the episode.
  
  Ariel Zurawski, the head of the Polish company that owned the truck, said the dead man found inside the cab was his cousin, Lukasz, who was 37 and married with a child.
  
  Mr. Zurawski said that Lukasz had been driving a shipment of construction materials to Berlin from Italy and that he had identified him from police photographs of the dead man. German officials declined to give further information on the victim.
  
  The arrest of the Pakistani suspect came after a witness told the police that he had seen a suspect jump from the truck. The witness tried to follow him through a nearby park to where he was arrested.
  
  
  
  TERROR ATTACKS IN EUROPE By MEGAN SPECIA 1:04
  Witness Describes Fatal Crash At Berlin Market
  Video
  Witness Describes Fatal Crash At Berlin Market
  A truck plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday evening, leaving at least twelve people dead and many more injured, according to the police. A British tourist who witnessed the incident described what she saw.
  
  By MEGAN SPECIA on Publish DateDecember 19, 2016. Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters. Watch in Times Video »
  • Nice attack in July, Ms. Petry called the carnage at the Berlin market “not just an attack on our freedom and our way of life, but also on our Christian tradition.”
    
    Daniela Schwarzer, leader of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said the harsh reaction offered a taste of the bitter debate to come in 2017.
    
    “They were very quick to link this directly to Merkel, and they said horrific things, blaming her for the deaths,” Ms. Schwarzer said.
    
    “That gives us a sense of what is coming in the electoral campaign,” she said, adding that after an especially nasty presidential campaign in the United States, German politicians, too, may abandon traditional decorum.
    
    Early in the day, a somber Ms. Merkel, dressed in black, briefly spoke to the news media and later lay a white rose at a memorial near the scene of the attack.
    
    “We must assume at the current time that it was a terrorist attack,” Ms. Merkel said on Tuesday, as she vowed to punish those behind the crimes “as severely as our laws demand.”
    
    
    
    TERROR ATTACKS IN EUROPE By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and REUTERS 1:17
    Pakistani Let Go in Berlin After Arrest in Attack
    Video
    Pakistani Let Go in Berlin After Arrest in Attack
    The German interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, said that a a 23-year-old man from Pakistan was arrested on Monday night after the attack on a Berlin Christmas market. The man was released on Tuesday.
    
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and REUTERS.Photo by John Macdougall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. Watch in Times Video »
    • Christmas markets in the city were closed on Tuesday, and flags were lowered to half-staff.
      
      “Twelve people were among us yesterday and were happy about Christmas and the holidays,” Ms. Merkel said. “This is incomprehensible, this act that robbed them of their lives.”
      
      She urged people not to bow to fear and suspicion, telling Germans they must continue to uphold their traditions, even when faced with the reality that democracy is vulnerable. “We don’t want to do without Christmas markets, without nice outings together,” she said. “We do not wish to let fear and angst take away our freedom to live.”
      
      Thomas de Maizière, Germany’s interior minister, said that there would be increased security in public places and at key transit hubs, and that local officials would make decisions about events that might need to be curtailed for safety reasons.
      
      Officials have been aware for some time of the risk of attacks on holiday-themed events in Europe. The State Department issued a travel alert on Nov. 21 recommending that Americans “exercise caution at holiday festivals, events and outdoor markets” throughout the Continent.
      
      “Credible information” indicated that the Islamic State, its affiliates and sympathizers “continue to plan terrorist attacks in Europe, with a focus on the upcoming holiday season and associated events,” the alert said, and that an attack could come with little or no warning.
      
      Throughout Tuesday, Berlin residents bearing flowers and candles placed them at makeshift memorials on either side of the church. Oliver Horn said he had written the slogan “Même pas peur” (French for “Not even afraid”), from the aftermath of the Nice attacks, on a poster and hung it near the site on his way to work on Tuesday.
      
      “It just came to my mind,” he said of the gesture. “I felt I had to do something.”
      
      The sign caught the attention of Cyril Leteuil, who was visiting Berlin from Bordeaux. “It’s just like Nice,” he said. “We’ve seen this in France.”
      

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/world/europe/berlin-attack-christmas-market.html?_r=0