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Suicide Bomber in Ansbach, Germany, Pledged Loyalty to ISIS, Officials Say Suicide Bomber in Ansbach, Germany, Pledged Loyalty to ISIS, Officials Say
(about 3 hours later)
ANSBACH, Germany — A 27-year-old Syrian who blew himself up on Sunday evening at an open-air music festival in southern Germany, injuring 15 people, had recorded a cellphone video in which he professed loyalty to the Islamic State, officials said on Monday. ANSBACH, Germany — A 27-year-old Syrian who blew himself up on Sunday evening outside a wine bar in southern Germany, injuring 15 people, had recorded a cellphone video in which he professed loyalty to the Islamic State, officials said on Monday.
The man, who entered Germany in 2014 as a refugee but was denied asylum, set off an explosion around 10 p.m. on Sunday at a bar outside the entrance to the festival, which was attended by about 2,000 people. Four of the 15 wounded in the blast were hospitalized with grave injuries. The man, who entered Germany in 2014 but was denied asylum, detonated a backpack around 10 p.m. on Sunday, near the entrance to an open-air music festival that was attended by about 2,000 people. Of the 15 people wounded, four had grave injuries.
In the video that the authorities found on his cellphone, the attacker, speaking in Arabic, said he “attests to his affiliation with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of the state of Bavaria, said at a news conference in Nuremberg. Mr. Baghdadi is the leader of the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL. It was the second attack in Germany in one week linked to the Islamic State: On July 18, in Würzburg, a 17-year-old Afghan refugee wielding an ax wounded four passengers on a train and a woman walking her dog before police officers fatally shot him.
“He threatens a specific act of revenge against the Germans, because they stand in the way of Islam, as revenge for the killing of Muslims,” Mr. Herrmann added. The attacks have profoundly disturbed a country that has taken pride on its ability to integrate migrants — enabled in part by its robust economy — and by its commitment to tolerance and openness.
On Monday afternoon, the Islamic State claimed responsibility, as it did after the attacks on July 14 in Nice, France, and last Monday in Würzburg, Germany, where a 17-year-old Afghan refugee wielding an ax wounded four passengers on a train and then a woman walking her dog before police officers fatally shot him. Even before the attack in Ansbach, two other violent assaults — seemingly unrelated to the Islamic State — had dominated the news: On Friday, an 18-year-old who had been treated for psychiatric problems shot nine people to death in Munich before killing himself, and earlier on Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee killed a woman with a machete in Reutlingen, in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg.
The Islamic State has urged Muslims to indiscriminately attack civilians in countries participating in the United States-led coalition fighting the group in Iraq and Syria. The exhortation has seemed to resonate with a number of people prone to mental illness, like the attacker in Nice, who had been treated in his native Tunisia for psychosis and depression. In Berlin on Monday, Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, cautioned that “in the Ansbach incident, neither a link to international Islamic State terrorism nor a mental disorder of the perpetrator can be ruled out,” adding, “It could be a combination of both.” On Monday afternoon, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Ansbach attack via its Amaq News Agency, calling the bomber a “soldier” who had acted in retaliation against the United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The language was nearly identical to that used by the Islamic State after the attacks in Würzburg, in Nice, France, and in other places where the group has directed or inspired attacks.
Germany has been deeply unsettled by two other violent attacks — evidently unrelated to the Islamic State — in recent days: On Friday, a mentally disturbed 18-year-old who was a dual German and Iranian citizen fatally shot nine people in Munich before killing himself; and earlier on Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee killed a woman with a machete in Reutlingen, in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg. Shortly before the Islamic State’s statement, Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of the state of Bavaria, said that the attacker, speaking in Arabic, had recorded a cellphone video swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State’s leader.
In Germany, there is a strong separation of powers between the federal and state governments. Officials in Berlin and in the southern state of Bavaria have been careful not to lump together the string of attacks. The video threatened “revenge for the killing of Muslims,” Mr. Herrmann said at a news conference in Nuremberg.
But the fact that recent migrants were involved in three of the four prominent attacks over the last week was certain to reignite debate about immigration — Bavaria has been a point of entry and a destination for many of the more than one million migrants who have sought refuge in Germany since the start of last year — and about the role of police and intelligence services in maintaining order in a country that cherishes not only stability but also privacy. While Germany has provided logistics, equipment and reconnaissance support to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, it is not involved in combat missions in Iraq or Syria and, unlike France and Belgium, has not been seen in recent years as fertile ground for jihadist radicalization.
“Bavaria is experiencing days of terror,” the state’s governor, Horst Seehofer, wrote on Facebook on Monday. “Our thoughts are with those injured by the insidious and brutal bombing in Ansbach.” The Islamic State’s exhortation for Muslims to attack civilians in countries participating in the United States-led coalition has resonated with a number of people prone to mental illness, like the attacker in Nice. In Berlin on Monday, Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, cautioned that “in the Ansbach incident, neither a link to international Islamic State terrorism nor a mental disorder of the perpetrator can be ruled out.” He added, “It could be a combination of both.”
He added: “The constitutional state will not retreat. Prudent in enlightenment, but determined in action — this is our guiding principle. The safety of our citizens is the highest priority.” The fact that three of the four attacks took place in Bavaria, the state at the front lines of the flow of migrants into Germany, resonated deeply.
The man had entered Germany last year after passing through Bulgaria, where he was fingerprinted, and he had been denied asylum in Germany. “Bavaria is experiencing days of terror,” the state’s governor, Horst Seehofer, wrote on Facebook. “Our thoughts are with those injured by the insidious and brutal bombing in Ansbach.”
As a policy, Germany does not send Syrians who are denied asylum back to Syria, on account of the civil war there, but it would have been possible to send him back to Bulgaria, his point of entry into the European Union. Winfried Bausback, the justice minister of Bavaria, wrote on Facebook that the attacks in Würzburg and Ansbach “show that Islamic terror has reached Germany.” He added, “Our democratic and liberal constitutional state has to adapt to this,” and urged greater resources for police and border officers.
“It is correct that Syrians cannot be deported to Syria at this point, this is out of the question, but that does not mean that Syrians cannot be deported at all,” Tobias Plate, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said in Berlin on Monday. The Syrian refugee who killed himself in Ansbach had been notified of his impending deportation to Bulgaria, but “I can’t at this point tell you why the deportation has not been carried out,” Mr. Plate said. Guido Steinberg, a terrorism expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said that “the uncontrolled influx of refugees” has contributed to “an enormous deterioration of the security situation.” He said that people posing as refugees had carried out attacks of terrorism, and that refugees were also susceptible to terrorist propaganda and recruitment. “What I do not understand at all is why the federal government does not admit this,” he said.
Carda Seidel, the mayor of Ansbach, a city of roughly 50,000 that is home to 644 refugees, said that the bomber had received two deportation orders, most recently on July 13. The bomber stayed in Bulgaria from late 2013 until the middle of 2014, Georgi Kostov, an official at the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, told journalists in Sofia.
Mubariz Mahmood, 28, an asylum-seeker from Pakistan who lived in the same shelter as the bomber, identified him as Mohammad Daleel, a name that also appears on a list of residents outside the building, a former hotel that has been converted to house migrants. In December 2013, he was granted a status that allowed him to travel freely within the European Union, if he had the necessary documents.
In an interview, Mr. Mahmood said Mr. Daleel told him that he had come to Germany via Bulgaria. The man entered Germany in June 2014, officials in Berlin said, but in September of that year, German authorities asked Bulgaria to take him back because he did not qualify for asylum. Bulgaria resisted, citing a European Union asylum protocol known as the Dublin regulation. Germany could have sent him back to Bulgaria under a separate agreement between the two countries, according to Petya Parvanova, who runs the refugee agency in Bulgaria. However, Germany never followed up, she said.
German officials offered a different account. Carda Seidel, the mayor of Ansbach, said the bomber had received two deportation orders, most recently on July 13, and Tobias Plate, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the bomber had been notified of his impending deportation to Bulgaria. But he added, “I can’t at this point tell you why the deportation has not been carried out.”
Ralf Millsaps, 59, who is originally from Mooresville, N.C., and has lived in Ansbach since April, after he retired from the Army, said he was sitting on the terrace outside the wine bar on Sunday night when the attacker sat down nearby.
“The guy comes in, he’s got long hair and earbuds,” Mr. Millsaps said. “He’s wearing a giant rucksack, not a day pack, a rucksack that was thick. He sits down at a table and doesn’t take off the rucksack.” The backpack smelled of fertilizer or diesel, he said. The man left, but returned 15 to 20 minutes later — and then the backpack exploded.
Mr. Millsaps — who said he was treated a shoulder injury and gave the clothes he was wearing to police for testing — said he believed that the detonator went off, but not the full array of explosives in the backpack. “The size of his rucksack, it should have taken the side off the building,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here talking to you if the bomb had gone off.” He added: “I know what I’m talking about. This ain’t my first rodeo.”
The bomber lived in Ansbach, a city of roughly 50,000 that is home to 644 refugees, in a former hotel that has been converted to house migrants. Mubariz Mahmood, 28, an asylum-seeker from Pakistan who lives in the building, identified the bomber as Mohammad Daleel, a name that also appears on a directory outside the building.
Mr. Mahmood said he had spoken several times with Mr. Daleel and had never had any problems with him. “I am shocked,” he said. “When I heard it was him, I was thinking: How could he do this?”Mr. Mahmood said he had spoken several times with Mr. Daleel and had never had any problems with him. “I am shocked,” he said. “When I heard it was him, I was thinking: How could he do this?”
He said he last saw Mr. Daleel early on Saturday, after Mr. Mahmood had returned from his late work shift at a McDonald’s.
In the cobblestone streets of the historic center of Ansbach, shops opened on Monday, and people went about their business. But some glanced warily at the heavy police presence. Red-and-white tape blocked off the streets leading to Pfarrstrasse, a narrow street running behind a church that boasts one of the oldest organs in the area and is close to the site of the attack.
Ms. Seidel, the mayor, said the man appeared to deliberately avoid security officials who were searching bags.
Winfried Bausback, the justice minister of Bavaria, wrote on Facebook on Monday that the ax attack in Würzburg and the suicide blast in Ansbach “show that Islamic terror has reached Germany.” He added: “Our democratic and liberal constitutional state has to adapt to this,” and he urged greater resources for police and border officers.