Saturday, December 24, 2016

Berlin market attack: Tunisia arrests suspect Amri's nephew

Tunisian security forces have arrested the nephew of the Berlin market attacker Anis Amri and two other suspects, officials say.
The Tunisian interior ministry said the three, aged between 18 and 27, were members of a "terrorist cell", and that they were detained overnight.
Tunisian-born Amri, 24, was shot dead by police near the Italian city of Milan in the early hours of Friday.
Monday's lorry attack on the market left 12 people dead and 49 injured.
The interior ministry statement said Amri's nephew - the son of his sister - had confessed that he had communicated with his uncle via the encrypted chat application Telegram to evade security surveillance.
It said the three-member cell had been active in the towns of Fouchana, outside Tunis, and Oueslatia near Amri's hometown of Kairouan, about 150km (95 miles) south of the capital.
Tunisia's Interior Ministry said Saturday the three have ties to terrorist Anis Amri the driver of the truck that crashed into the market Monday, killing 12 people.
The ministry claimed Amri sent his 18-year-old nephew Fedi money to join him in Europe.
It is unclear whether the suspects helped Amri flee Berlin.
The nephew was arrested in Amri's hometown of Oueslatia while the others were arrested in Tunis. The arrests occurred Saturday.
On Monday, Amri's fingerprints and wallet were found in the truck that plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin. After fleeing from Germany and through France, he was shot dead by Italian police in Milan on Friday.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Monday's attack. 
Before his death, Amri pledged his allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and called for jihadists to take revenge on "crusaders" bombing Muslims, a video posted on Islamic State's Amaq website showed. It was not clear if the video was made before or after the Berlin attack.
Also Saturday, Spain's Interior Minister says police are investigating whether Amri was in contact with another possible extremist in Spain.
Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido tells Spanish radio station Cope that Spanish police are looking into a tip passed on by German authorities that Amri had developed a contact in Spain.
Zoido says “we are studying all possible connections (between Amri) and our country, above all with one specific person.”
Amri sought asylum after arriving in Germany late last year, Sky News reported Saturday.
The news outlet reports that Amri was seen as a potential threat long before the Berlin attack. Terrorism investigators had him under surveillance for six months.
But authorities failed to deport him because he lacked valid identity papers and Tunisia initially denied he was a citizen, Sky News reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

0 comments:

Post a Comment