Shock: ISIS Admits Guilt in Berlin Market Attack

As you've no doubt heard by now, the man arrested yesterday has been released for lack of evidence and police suspicion that he's just the wrong guy.

e Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead and nearly 50 injured, as German security forces hunted for the perpetrator after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence.

IS said in a statement from its Amaq news agency that the attacker "in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition."

Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they'd released a man picked up on Monday night near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck. The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, had been picked up based on a description of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled.

But federal prosecutors said late Tuesday that he denied any involvement and they had found no forensic evidence proving he was in the cab during the rampage.

The second man in the truck was apparently not a terrorist-- he was a worker with legitimate access to the truck, hijacked and murdered by the terrorist.

The driver of a lorry which ploughed into the crowd at a Berlin Christmas market was stabbed and shot to death in its cabin becoming the first victim of the attack, the owner of his Polish trucking company has claimed.

Ariel Zurawski said German authorities asked him to identify the victim, Lukasz Urban, 37, from photos.

"His face was swollen and bloodied. It was really clear that he was fighting for his life," Mr Zurawski told the broadcaster TVN.

Right-wing parties are blaming Angela Merkel for the attack, on the convoluted theory that, simply by inviting in millions of immigrants from terrorist-infiltrated countries, she might have let in a whole bunch of terrorists.

Crazy!

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel said it would be "repugnant" for many of the people who have helped refugees to find out one has committed a terror attack, as right-wing leaders warn "horror has arrived" in the country. Speaking on Tuesday morning Ms Merkel said she was "shocked and saddened" that "12 people that were looking forward to Christmas and had plans for the festive season are no longer among us."

"We don't know anything for certain but we must assume it was a terrorist attack.

"Millions of people are asking themselves how can we live with the fact that during the festive season where we want to celebrate life, somebody has taken so many lives," she said.

Given that the apparently-innocent man was arrested due to bearing a resemblance to what the actual terrorist looked like, and given that ISIS has admitted guilt in the horror, I'm going to say you can do more than "assume" it was an Islamist terrorist attack, Angela.

posted by Ace at 03:44 PM

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