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Updated 2.14pm
THE MAIN SUSPECT in the Berlin market attack, Anis Amri was shot dead early this morning in a shootout in Milan.
The Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti confirmed the news at a press conference.
He said that “without a shadow of a doubt”, Amri is the man who was killed.
Sky News / TwitterAnis Amri took out a pistol and shot at police when he was stopped in Milan before he was shot dead https://t.co/cEYssquIeC
— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 23, 2016
Minniti said that during routine activity, a state police squad stopped someone who appeared to be a suspect. “The moment he was stopped the man without hesitating immediately took a pistol out of his rucksack and shot the police,” said Minniti.
The police had been asking for identification documents.
One of the police officers was shot in the shoulder and is now recovering in hospital.
Investigations in Milan continue. Minniti thanked the police officers for their work and said that Italy is grateful to them.
The Berlin government is in close contact with the Italian government.
At a press conference this afternoon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed Amri’s death and said that she believed he was the man responsible for the attack. She expressed gratitude to Italian authorities and said that “terrorism is a challenge for us all”.
She said it is good to know that “we are very determined in Europe and beyond to fight it”.
The investigation is not over yet in Berlin, the intelligence bureau will continue the investigation and follow traces and follow the backgrounds. I know we will not rest until we know who may have possibly helped him and if there are helpers of helpers.
She said that Germany will “also accelerate the measurements to increase the numbers of those who are not allowed to reside in Germany”. Merkel said it is the responsibility of the state to safeguard the citizens, and they will do their utmost.
Amri had links to Italy, having arrived in the country from his native Tunisia in 2011.
Shortly after his arrival he was sentenced to a prison term for starting a fire in a refugee centre.
He was released in 2015 and made his way to Germany.
Police commandos yesterday raided three homes and a long-distance bus, prosecutors said, as they cast a wide dragnet for 24-year-old Amri.
Police said they were certain it was Amri who steered the 40-tonne lorry after finding his identity papers and fingerprints inside the cab, next to the corpse of its registered Polish driver who was killed with a gunshot to the head.
Authorities had issued a Europe-wide wanted notice over the attack, offering a €100,000 reward for information leading to Amri’s arrest.
In Tunisia, a brother of the fugitive earlier appealed to him to surrender.
“If he is listening to me, I tell him: ‘Present yourself’ so the family can rest easier,” Abdelkader Amri told reporters.
If my brother is behind the attack, I say to him ‘You dishonour us’
Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “proud of how calmly most people reacted” to Germany’s deadliest attack in years and voiced confidence Amri would be arrested soon.
Arrests
Earlier today, it emerged that police in Germany have arrested two brothers on suspicion of planning to attack one of Germany’s biggest shopping centres, four days after Berlin Christmas market attack.
Police said they had arrested two men, aged 28 and 31, originally from Kosovo early this morning, and were trying to establish how advanced the plot was and whether other people were involved.
Acting on a tip-off from the intelligence services, police were deployed to the shopping complex and a nearby Christmas market in the western city of Oberhausen late last night, they said.
The mall that was targeted, CentrO, is one of the largest in Germany with around 250 shops that are usually packed in the run-up to Christmas.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the assault – their deadliest yet carried out on German soil.
Asylum seeker
Officials have revealed that Amri was a rejected asylum seeker with a history of crime who had spent years in an Italian jail and had long been known to German counter-terrorism agencies.
News weekly Der Spiegel reported that in wiretaps, Amri could be heard offering to carry out a suicide operation, but that his words were too vague for an arrest warrant.
And Berlin prosecutors said Amri had been monitored from March until September, suspected of planning a burglary to pay for automatic weapons to carry out an attack.
However, when authorities failed to find evidence of the plot and watched Amri operate as a small-time drug dealer, the surveillance was stopped.
“They knew him. They did nothing,” ran the scathing headline of Berlin’s BZ tabloid.
Conservative lawmaker Stephan Mayer, a critic of Merkel’s liberal stance on refugees, said the case “held up a magnifying glass” to the failings of her migration policy.
Germany took in more than a million refugees last year, many of them fleeing violence in Syria, North Africa and the Middle East.
- © AFP 2016 Additional reporting Aoife Barry
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is leaving identity papers in the truck going to be a feature of these types of attacks. same with Nice.
@stopit: I’ve wondered about that. It also featured in one of the Hebdo attackers.
Probably planted there
@stopit: Don’t you remember the passport that fell out of one of the planes that crashed into the towers in New York? It was pure luck it happened to be one of the hijackers passports. These miracles do happen. No false flags here.
what’s the deal with that ? why do they always seem to leave their ID behind …
Lutz Bachmann leader of Pegida, tweeted it was a Tunisian Muslim 1 hour after the attack the day before police “found” his papers in the truck. German police confirmed there was no whistle blower as they only found the papers the following day after thinking it was a Pakistani man…
So much for freedom of movement and the Schengen zone.
And people wonder why Britain voted for Brexit.
The EU putting flawed principles above the safety of its people.
@ Jimmy Carter definatley planted there, can’t understand why your getting red thumbs, the trolls usually red thumb the true statements in order to try sway the public opinion, but they always finds there I’D or passports
@Jimmy. Sounds about right. It was probably a tip off or a bugged phone. I seriously doubt you would leave personal papers at a crime scene. The fact he was shot dead , means he can’t be questioned or defend himself. The German police appear to be completely incompetent. This guy had so many identities how do they know it’s their man.
@stopit: I think if they were going to make something up they’d go with something a bit more believable than “oh his ID fell out of his pocket shur”.
We do not have to stop our freedom …of movement for them..
Martyrdom. So their fellow head hacking chums can celebrate their sick acts.
Martyrdom is why they leave their IDs, a calling card so they can be remembered and celebrated amongst their fellow Islamic Jihadists.
Just an innocent dupe then Jimmy?. Maybe the young Italian policeman was also in on the prank, shooting himself in the shoulder and planting the gun on the suspect. It’d make a good Netflix original.
@Jimmy Carter: Nope. A video has been released of him swearing allegiance to ISIS.
@Rosa Parks:
An apparent legal notice to Merkel and immigration policy pushers
http://www.thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=108113
Susie Sunshine they leave ID behind for IS and their friends to be able to name them in their PR after the event. This character probably thought he would have been neutralised by the police like the last one in France was.
Yes it’s done on purpose to help martyrism
After 15 years of this shyte Im genuinely conditioned to feel these are false flag tactics to develop a backable campagin for over throwing the middle east.
@Killian: Sure, mate… if it wasn’t for “d”man” the Middle East wouldn’t have any problems to export.
Don’t really care what the Middle East do to themselves but the West fukking around in there is costing lives in Europe. These attacks rarely make sense. Here’s a funny story. 15 Saudis a couple of UAE’s, an Egyptian and a Lebaneese man walk on to some planes….Iraq and Afghanistan get invaded.
Hoax?
@Ó Connmhaigh: Agreed. Congratulations to the Italian police, glad the officer is out of danger and the culprit was shot dead. Hopefully Merkel’s days are numbered and La Penn is on the way to victory. The EU has failed and when it is destroyed, the green blob will be destroyed with it as a bonus
More than likely headed to cause another attack. These Islamist savages never learn and will never give in. Time to close the borders and kick out anyone who doesnt believe in living by our set of principles and cultures.
@John Henry: You do realise that “closing all borders” alone would do nothing to stop people from being radicalised? Or stopping people who are already being radicalised from committing terrorist attacks, right? There are plenty of Irish people who don’t believe in living by our set of principles and culture either, so they should be first out then.
@Michael Shimaoka: If it wasn’t for Europe’s immigration policies of the past few decades, we wouldn’t have an issue here with Muslim extremism. The terrorists are either immigrants or of a recent immigrant background.
Of course closing the borders will help solve the problem. It’s a wholly imported issue.
Oh, and you want to deport native Irish people from their own homeland?
It’s more absurd you open border lunatics are getting.
@Sean O’Connor: Wow. You don’t really seem to have any idea about how the problem actually works. There are also European converts to Islam who have no idea about what it is that they’re converting to apart from soundbites and gibberish from radicals and extremists.
The thing is, there wasn’t the same problems associated with immigration into Europe in the 1950s and 1960s that there are now. Imposing your increasingly blinkered set of “values” on the past as a way of understanding it doesn’t work.
That “Abaaoud” guy’s family had been in Belgium since the 1970s…..
@Sean O’Connor: Disagreeing with your blinkered views makes me a lunatic? Pull the other one.
@Michael Shimaoka: There was feck all immigration into Europe in the 1950s and ’60s compared to now. Those that came in were meant to go home. They were guest workers.
Now we are seeing the problems that has caused with their kids and grandchildren. Mass non European immigration has been an utter disaster.
“kick out anyone who doesn’t believe in our set of principles” – says the guy with the one percenter patch in his profile picture. Irony.
@Michael Shimaoka: The fact that there are European converts to radical Islam does not mean that it’s a good idea to let in more radical Islamists.
@Ben McArthur: Did I say that it was?
@Michael Shimaoka: It would stop them committing terrorism inside the EU Michael
@Michael Shimaoka: As an Island Nation,they can be Smoked out Eventually,in this Monster European “Onion” this would take Years.Ireland Must Withdraw from the Rich Boys Club.NOW .EU,Rome and A Day spring to Mind.
Open borders. Originally on the cops’ watch list and killed 12 people and he got to Italy?
@Eóghain Pádraig MacEochagáin: Does it really matter whether he was caught in Milan or Munich? The Italian and German police have better systems for sharing information than we have across our open border with The North.
He was stopped at a routine police checkpoint and shot a police officer. The sharing of information had nothing to do with it.
@Chris Mansfield: they have better systems? He was arrested and sentenced to four years in jail in Italy. His asylum claim was rejected. He then gets to Germany and his previous crimes or asylum rejection in Italy wasn’t brought up.
He then commits mass murder and gets back into Italy.
Their system is a shambles. The whole of Europe’s immigration and border control system is a shambles.
It’s being reported elsewhere that he traveled to Italy via France.
Well since Germany doesn’t have a border with Italy it was always pretty likely that he’d get there via either France, Switzerland or Austria.
@Eóghain Pádraig MacEochagáin: The EU needs to restrict freedom of movement for people on the terror watchlists. Anis Amri was on the list of the most dangerous terrorists. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/new-terror-attack-thwarted-say-german-police/2016/12/23/7ea61604-c8e7-11e6-85b5-76616a33048d_story.html?utm_term=.99545f7f6e51
So a failed asylum seeker kills may in Berlin and is free to travel to Milan!!!!! What the Fe CK is going on here????? No borders means NO security.
I don’t think they said at the border “Oh, you’re that terrorist fella but we have to let you through because of open borders”.
There was nobody at the border. That’s his point.
@Neal, not Neil.: Why did the Germans let him enter in the first place? He was a failed asylum seeker with a criminal record in Italy.
@Sean O’Connor: It’s easy enough for people to get forged documents if they know where to look. There are plenty of people in Italy who would be willing to make forged documents for people who ask (and pay), including failed asylum seekers.
@Michael Shimaoka: Can’t forge your fingerprints or a scan of your retina.
Anyone entering Europe and claiming asylum is meant to have their biometrics recorded and entered into a Europe wide database. If this isn’t being done, then that’s down to incompetence. Everyone entering the US goes through this process.
@Sean O’Connor: You do realise that there are numerous European countries that have their own documentation processes, yeah?
@Michael Shimaoka:
Yes and they’re not recording them and entering them into the shared European database/The Schengen Information System (SIS). Hence why failed asylum seekers and criminals can leave one member state (Itaky) and again claim asylum in another (Germany) without being flagged.
If the system worked, he wouldn’t have been allowed into Germany in the first place. It cost twelve people their life.
Maybe microchip violent criminals?
@Michael Shimaoka: Its not so easy to make fake biometric travel documents. There needs to be biometricisation of all of them
It looks like it was all too easy for him to cross the border. Never going to eradicate this problem, it’s here to stay. Thanks Merkel.
@Seth Cheffetz: In all fairness, you can’t blame it all on Angela Merkel. It’s way more complex than that.
@Neil Mcdonough: please elaborate on the complexities Neil. I could have sworn that this madness all started when she announced that anyone from the third world is welcome into Germany.
@thejynxeffect: Only if you wish to paint all refugees/migrants as terrorists.
We had open borders before merkel and should not get rid of them inside of Europe. So getting caught in Milan or Madrid doesn’t matter once he is caught
@Neil Mcdonough: Neil, i did not paint all migrants as terrorists. That would be stupid. No one with common sense would do that. Obviously they are not all terrorists. But without doubt terrorists have entered Europe using Merkel’s invitation to their advantage and have attacked Europeans. At some point someone has to take responsibility for it.
@thejynxeffect: Why? We are where we are and demanding someone take responsibility would just start a blame-game. Assad, Putin, Obama, Hollande, Merkel, Cameron, Erdogen . . . not to mention Bush and Blair, Saddam, the house of Saud . . . where would it end?
Terrorism is an act of war, and I think unfortunately that we will have to get used to these atrocities because by the fact of European involvement in Syria/Iraq/Afghanistan, we are in a war. The concern should be for preventing any escalation of fear, tension and hatred that could tear Europe apart far more quickly than these acts, which are for the moment, very infrequent.
@thejynxeffect: Have you ever heard of the Bader -Meinhoff Gang -1970s -I dont think they were Islamists .
If we can all agree that
(1) a small proportion of the new immigrants are terrorists, and
(2) a vastly larger proportion aren’t
then isn’t it for the pro-immigration crowd to say what an acceptable level of terrorism would be, given the alleged benefits of immigration?
Neil, nobody is saying that all muslims / migrants are terrorists. Unlike you though, most of us recognise that there is no practical and reliable way to differentiate the extremist with murderous intentions from the innocent muslim who just wants to get on with his/her life. If you find the silver bullet on this (no pun intended) I’m sure the relevant authorities would be delighted to know. Until then, mass uncontrolled migration isn’t going to end well for either the immigrant population or the host society in the long-term.
Enjoy the non existent virgins ass wipe.
The Americans ‘liberated’ Kosovo from the ‘oppression’ of the Serbs to hand it to their Saudi-jihadist allies. The ‘oppression’ that the fundamentalists of Kosovo were suffering, then as now, was mostly the same suffering that jihadists everywhere experience – rule by former dhimmis/infidels – supremacist bullies consider being ruled by lesser beings a form of ‘oppression’.
And Ireland like a good US ally, copies it by allowing Gulf states that support terrorism to fund mosques here.
@Marlowemallow: Wow that comment got stranded when the story changed…
@Marlowemallow: Still valid.
So many failures. Firstly he illegally enters Italy from Libya without a passport. Then he commits crimes in Italy and is not deported because he has no passport! Then despite the authorities knowing he’s a violent criminal, he is allowed to stroll into Germany. Then his asylum request is rejected, and again he can’t be deported because he has no passport! Then the police stop surveillance on him because of lack of resources. Then he commits his act of terror in Berlin, and of course the police have no security barriers or cctv in place. And the police cannot even release his face to the media due to privacy concerns. Then once again he is allowed to cross into France and Italy no problem despite being a wanted man.
Unbelievable litany of failure. I count 8 major failures. Our whole security system needs to be completely overhauled. Everything needs to change. First off, can we please stop importing hundreds of thousands of young adult Muslim males into Europe. That would be a start.
Bertie ahern,Mary robinson,michael d Higgins are the people to blame for the amount of ayslhm seekers in Ireland today.
Nobody really cares anymore as the Irish don’t feel they have a say in their own country and have to look to the EU for direction. I don’t want to live in a federal state, I want some say in the destiny of my community and country that I am taxed through the nose to pay for.
Where are all the do gooders now…Where are the Muslim community now ?!!
@Sam: Would you prefer some sort of homogenous totalitarian dictatorship? Are you one of those “Identity Ireland/PEGIDA/National Party” people?
Michael are you a left wing looney open borders sure isn’t everyone is lovely idiot ?
Good riddance to bad rubbish!
Schengen agreement is dead now. This guy was on a wanted list and travelled freely between european countries, same with Paris attackers. We need some sort of control again.
The wonders of the Schengen agreement. The abolishment of internal borders for the free and unrestricted movement of people, goods, services, capital, weapons and terrorists.
That was signed in 1985. Well before Merkel and the rise of jihadi terrorism.
@Ross Stewart: Agreed, but assists jihadi terrorism today. It was wrong in 1985 and it is wrong now.
That’s not really the point Ross.
Has anyone seen any mass “not in the name of Islam” protests by the “vast majority” of “moderate muslims” against radicalization?
Eh…no. I think there was one in France a while back after that priest was killed. Couple hundred people max
@Buster VL: hundreds of thousands of them protested the Danish cartoonists depiction of Muhammad. Very few will protest the mass murder and terrorism carried out in Islam’s name.
That speaks volumes.
@thejynxeffect: Mostly Ahmadis.
Good news!
If the terrorist had been captured alive much could have been learned about his psychology, motivation, influences and methods. His death is no loss, indeed he likely revelled in his own death, but intelligence and security services need to know far more about what makes these people tick.
@Micheal OLainn: An Islamist mindset probably causes the “tick” but I’m sure a mental illness will trump that in your deluded world. Happy Christmas
Don’t think there is a big mystery as to what they want establish Islam and Islamic law in Europe
@John Burke: Be careful John MOL is kind of trigger happy on the report button.
@micheal, he thinks the thousand virgins are waiting for him right now, that’s his ideology.
@John Burke: “An Islamist mindset.” You do realise that every major religion has its fair share of extremists and terrorists, don’t you? Unless you think that groups like the Tamil Tigers were Muslims the entire time.
@Michael Shimaoka:
The majority of the world’s Muslims are extreme in their beliefs.
Muslims – 1.6 billion.
Muslims who believe wife should obey husband – 1.39 billion.
Muslims who believe Sharia should rule – 1.1 billion.
Muslims who believe in death for adultery – 748 million.
Muslims who believe in death for leaving Islam – 584 million.
Source: Pew Research Centre. The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society.
http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/
@Sean O’Connor: Michael O’Lainn’s goal is to promote a narrative that Islamist terrorism is a security issue which should be left to the normal work of the security services. It’s intended to lull you into a false sense of security as the frog slowly boils.
@Sean O’Connor travellers all over the world are disowning you, pfttt given pikes a bad name
It seems from the established facts that there was no alternative but to shoot the terrorist but more valuable intelligence can be obtained from live terrorists than dead terrorists, such as contacts, persons who influenced, how the person was influenced and so on.
It is self evident that, apart from some forensic traces, dead men tell no tales.
Jeez Michael are you that naive? We all know how he was influenced. It’s not rocket science.
@canuckandgo: He’s not naive. He knows Abdeslam has kept his mouth shut in Paris all this time. He’s trying to convince the naive to treat this as a security services issue which requires no further response from our political system. i.e. there are to be no awkward questions asked of that voluntary religious community called muslims. That’s his priority.
So he crossed two borders with a pistol…
@Bottleneck: Yes, but remember; open borders aren’t a problem!
They capture Pakistani man who turns out to be non guilty (despite having number of unrelated criminal offences), second the real killer eaves his ID in the truck after legging it and few days later he casually walks in Milan and then is stopped and shot dead. Right. Let’s say I’m buying into all that BS. But some questions remain, how he crossed to Italy that quick and easily? How come mistaken identity man (Pakistan) has not been deported yet? Etc. Etc. They really must think people are stupid with all these news reporting.
He crossed to Italy that easily because there are no border checks – that’s the point.
@Tomasz Kuchnik: Amri is on a video released by ISIS https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/new-terror-attack-thwarted-say-german-police/2016/12/23/7ea61604-c8e7-11e6-85b5-76616a33048d_story.html?utm_term=.99545f7f6e51
The best kind of terrorist – a dead one. Well done to Italian police
This lunatic is denounced by his own sister and brother, yet bigots here love to paint all Muslims as somehow identically fanatic. Shame on you for lumping everyone together. It’s the same as blaming you if a Christian nutjob bombs a clinic in the US.
@Dublin Living: There is an awful more of Islamic nutjobs compared to the Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh Shinto, taoism nutjobs etc combined.
@William Boyd: And?
@Michael Shimaoka: not rocket science the Islamic ideology is extremely more dangerous than all other creeds combined!.
@William Boyd: Which is BS. Christianity and Buddhism ALONE have killed far more people.
@Michael Shimaoka: Give me a break I suppose your going to tell me Hitler was a Christian (agnostic at best) and anyway the Nazi’s didn’t wage war over religion unlike the Islamic hordes of yonder and bring up the 11th century crusades?, I’m talking about the here and now!.
@William Boyd: you’re
Christianity stopped being a powerful force in most western countries long time ago In Islam the state and religion are one That is the big difference go against Islam convert to another religion you go against the state and it’s laws
Suppose what you’re saying is true Michael. Is that somehow supposed to make killing people in the name of Islam more acceptable??
Merkel is the biggest danger to the future of Europe since Hitler. She is hell bent on destroying our culture and system of beliefs. Shame on her.
I’m still waiting for amnesty to complain about excessive force being used
Too easy way out for him and another innocent person injured, rather he’d rot in jail
I hope that Italy will not get the repercusions for killing that animal on their soil. There’s some evil people in this world.
“German politician faces resignation calls after preventing police sharing image of Berlin truck killer | Daily Mail Online”
“…Till Steffen prevented law enforcers in Hamburg from releasing pictures of Anis Amri, it is claimed
There was a 12 hour delay before the images were finally shared, while Amri was at large
He faces call to step down, amid claims he was concerned about inciting racial hatred
The delay was branded ‘incomprehensible’ by critics …”
For a moment there I thought it was the Crumlin Shopping Centre. My heart sank..
If only there was a way to stop these chaps fleeing to another country to try escape.
ISIS-linked news agency releases video of Berlin attacker swearing allegiance to the radical group – WP
@washingtonpost
Why, Did any Italian politicians thank mama Merkel mother of the economic migrants brought here several dozen of whom are already plotting,involved in terror by a very conservative estimate ? Resign Angela. Resign now.
Such a shame the german cops wasted a day while this guy made good his escape.
If Amri hadnt have left his ID papers in the lorry, the cops would have been clueless.
Once again I’m sure, the alt-right scaredy-cats will be on screeching imminent doom for Europe. Mad really, you only have to look at the telly to see what real war and its ensuing destruction is like, yet clearly a sense of proportion is lacking somewhere. How do you explain that in a so called educated populace? Is it 24h sensationalist news, social media or whatever I don’t know . . .
@Neil: How many deaths in Europe are you happy to accept before admitting there is a problem? How many exactly? 12 wasn’t enough this week. The 90 in the Bataclan wasn’t enough for you? How about the streetfull in Nice? How many innocent people have to die at the hands of believers in this sadistic death cult, before you even admit there is a problem? They hate us because we are unbelievers first and foremost. Their belief is that everyone is damned to hell, but if you die killing an unbeliever, you aren’t damned for as long. These beliefs are hateful, intolerant and regressive, and have no place in a free society. Declare this belief itself a hate crime and act accordingly.
@Neil Mcdonough: Nice to hear that you are so full of love for the Religion of Peace.
Would you be happy for your daughter to be amongst a crowd of these fit young testosterone loaded migrants?
I smell bull5hit
I’d suggest closing the windows…
It’s a pity he was not captured alive and torture him for a years like he has tortured victims familys forever.
Can you imagine the uproar if it was perceived by the public that this man was never caught?
ah.. a great shopping centre in its day !
have your say