2016 Ansbach bombing

2016 Ansbach bombing
Part of Terrorism in Germany (Islamic terrorism in Europe (2014–present) and Spillover of the Syrian Civil War)

Eugens Weinstube, where the explosion happened

Location map

  Site of explosion.   ☐  Venue area.

① Entrance / Ticket checkpoint Pfarrstraße.

② Entrance / Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Platz.
Location Ansbach, Bavaria, Germany
Coordinates 49°18′0″N 10°35′0″E / 49.30000°N 10.58333°E / 49.30000; 10.58333Coordinates: 49°18′0″N 10°35′0″E / 49.30000°N 10.58333°E / 49.30000; 10.58333
Date 24 July 2016 (2016-07-24)
22:12 (CEST)
Attack type
 Suicide bombing[1]
Weapons IED
Deaths 1 (the perpetrator)
Non-fatal injuries
 15[2]
Perpetrator Mohammad Daleel[2]

On 24 July 2016, fifteen people were injured, four seriously, in a suicide bombing outside a wine bar in Ansbach, Germany.[3] The bomber, identified as Mohammad Daleel, was a 27-year-old Syrian refugee who had pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State. He was the only fatality in the incident.[4][5] According to German authorities, Daleel was in contact with the Islamic State and had been planning more attacks before his backpack bomb exploded accidentally.[6]

The incident followed three other attacks in Germany within a week, including a knife attack that killed a pregnant woman in Reutlingen earlier in the day,[7] a mass shooting that killed nine people in Munich several days earlier, and a train attack in Würzburg.[8] All of these were committed by people of Middle Eastern or Pashtun background, all of whom, save for the Munich shooter, were refugees or asylum seekers that recently came to Germany.

The Ansbach bombing was the first suicide bombing in Germany by Islamic terrorists,[9][10] and the first since WW2. Cüneyt Çiftçi, the perpetrator of a 2008 suicide bombing in Afghanistan, who had previously lived in Ansbach, is considered the first suicide bomber to have been born and raised in Germany.[11]

Event

At 22:12 CEST (20:12 UTC), a bomb exploded outside Eugens Weinstube (Eugene's Wine Bar) in Ansbach, Germany and injured fifteen people, four seriously.[1][12] The explosion occurred near the entrance to the Ansbach Open music festival with around 2,500 people in attendance.[13][14] It was initially thought to have been caused by a gas leak.[15] Daleel was communicating with someone online immediately before the blast.[16] Daleel was in communication with a telephone number in Saudi Arabia[17] minutes before the attack. He carried a backpack filled with screws, nails, and miscellaneous metal parts used in wood manufacturing and was denied entry into the music festival shortly before the blast because he had no ticket.[2][18][19][20] Thereafter, witnesses say, Daleel sat outside Eugene's Wine Bar, leaned forward, and detonated an improvised explosive device.[21] Emergency personnel arrived and attempted to resuscitate Daleel, but he was already dead.[2][19]

Perpetrator

Mohammad Daleel (Arabic: محمد دليل‎‎) was a 27-year-old Syrian refugee from Aleppo who had arrived in Germany in 2014 seeking asylum.[22][23] He had been registered as a refugee first in Bulgaria, then later in Austria.[2][24] Normal procedure in Germany did not allow Daleel to be deported to his home country due to the ongoing Syrian civil war.[2][21] As he had been registered in Bulgaria, German officials and the local court in Ansbach rejected his first asylum request on 2 December 2014 and ordered his deportation to Bulgaria.[24][25] He then attempted to commit suicide twice and was under psychiatric care.[2][26][27] Due to Daleel's mental health diagnosis, the deportation to Bulgaria was suspended.[2] On 13 July 2016, a second deportation notice to Bulgaria was sent to Daleel.[28][29]

After the bombing, Harald Weinberg from Die Linke (The Left Party) said he had intervened on behalf of Daleel in his attempted deportation to Bulgaria in 2015,[30] one of six asylum seekers he has aided.[31] He said he is "shocked and saddened" by the attack, "Especially since I am often at the Eugene Weinstube and am familiar with many guests there," but given what he knew at that time he believed he had done the right thing.[31]

Bild reported that Daleel built the bomb "in the refugee center".[32]

Aftermath

The music festival was cancelled and the immediate vicinity in which the bombing occurred was evacuated.[2]

Investigation

German authorities have found a video showing Daleel pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and intending to attack Germans on his phone. Multiple cell phones, SIM cards, a notebook, and six Facebook accounts with Islamist material that belonged to Daleel were also discovered and under investigation.[20][27] Furthermore, inside the asylum accommodation in which the attacker lived, materials for bomb building were uncovered.[10][20] Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian interior minister, said that "it is unquestionable that it is a terror attack with corresponding Islamist convictions of the perpetrator."[3][25]

Less than an hour after media reported that the attacker had made a pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Amaq News Agency called him an Islamic State fighter who executed the operation in response to calls to target countries of the coalition that fights Islamic State.[2][25]

Reactions

As a result of the recent attacks in Germany, the hashtag #Merkelsommer and phrase "Merkel summer" trended on Twitter starting on 25 July 2016 and appeared in other social media.[20][33] Experts believed that the recent attacks could create an anti-foreigner sentiment in the country, thus presenting criticism and pressure for Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany since 2005.[33][34]

Joachim Herrmann acknowledged that it was "a very terrible week, as I think it was for most of the people in Bavaria." He said that German authorities would investigate ways to prevent abuse of the asylum system.[2][20]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Suicide bombing outside cafe in Ansbach, Germany". BNO News. BNO News. 24 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Farrer, Martin (24 July 2016). "Ansbach explosion: one dead and 12 injured in German town after 'deliberate' blast – latest". the Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Germany blast: Ansbach bar explosion 'leaves one dead'". BBC. BBC. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  4. ↑ Connor, Laura (25 July 2016). "ISIS say Ansbach suicide bomber was 'Islamic State soldier'". Mirror. MGN Limited. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  5. ↑ "Bavaria's top security official says Ansbach attacker a 27-year-old Syrian who had been denied asylum". Newsday. Associated Press. 24 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  6. ↑ Ulrich, Andreas (5 August 2016). "Terror Investigation: Germany Attackers Had Contact with Suspected IS Members". Spiegel Online.
  7. ↑ Darko Janjevic. "Police arrest Syrian man after woman killed in knife attack in Germany". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 25 July 2016. An attacker has allegedly killed one woman and injured five in the city of Reutlingen in southwest Germany, according to local police.
  8. ↑ "Syrian man carrying bomb dies in Germany; 12 wounded". Yahoo. Reuters. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  9. ↑ Troianovski, Anton; Buell, Todd (25 July 2016). "Ansbach Bombing in Germany Believed to Be Islamist Terror Attack". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  10. 1 2 Erster Selbstmordanschlag in Deutschland - Bundesanwaltschaft übernimmt Ermittlungen, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 25 July 2016, in German
  11. ↑ Gebauer, Matthias (27 March 2008). "'Bavarian Taliban' Video: The Smiling Suicide Bomber". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  12. ↑ Lee, Buffer / Kevan (24 July 2016). "Suspected Suicide Bomber Targets Music Festival in Germany, Injuring 12". TIME.com. Time Inc. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  13. ↑ "Germany attack Live: One killed, 12 injured in explosion at a bar near Nuremberg, say police". The Indian Express. The Express Group. 25 July 2016.
  14. ↑ Christys, Patrick (24 July 2016). "BREAKING: At least one dead and 12 injured in suicide bomb attack at German wine bar". Express. Express Newspapers. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  15. ↑ "At least 1 killed, several injured in restaurant explosion in Germany". rt.com. Russia Today. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  16. ↑ Grieshaber, Kirsten; Mroue, Bassem (27 July 2016). "Minister: Bavaria bomber in online chat before attack". Associated Press. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  17. ↑ Gabriel Gatehouse. "Germany 'was warned about Ansbach suicide bomber'". BBC. Retrieved 23 August 2016. German investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Mohammed Daleel may have had contact with jihadist groups years before he detonated his bomb. They say he was communicating with a telephone number in Saudi Arabia in the minutes before the attack.
  18. ↑ "BREAKING: 1 dead, 11 injured, after new bomb attack in Germany". dailystar.co.uk. Daily Star. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  19. 1 2 Young, Matt. "Bomb explosion in Ansbach, Germany". News.com.au. News Limited. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 Ellis, Ralph. "Suicide bomb rocks Ansbach, Germany". CNN. Turner Broadcasting System. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  21. 1 2 Troianovski, Anton (25 July 2016). "Apparent suicide bomber kills himself, injures 12 in Germany". Market Watch. MarketWatch, Inc. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  22. ↑ "Germany: Twelve wounded in Ansbach bombing". www.aljazeera.com. Al Jazeera Media Network. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  23. ↑ Troianovski, Anton; Bender, Ruth; Buell, Todd (25 July 2016). "ISIS Suicide Bombing Sets Germany on Edge". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  24. 1 2 "Ansbach attacker: Asylum seeker to IS suicide bomber - BBC News". BBC. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  25. 1 2 3 "Syrian bomber at German music festival was set to be deported, police say". Washington Post. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  26. ↑ "27yo Syrian refugee behind Ansbach blast previously attempted suicide – Bavaria". rt.com. Russia Today. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  27. 1 2 "Ansbach suicide bomber confirms Isis loyalty in video". The Local. The Local Europe. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  28. ↑ Osborne, Samuel (25 July 2016). "Syrian asylum seeker who killed himself and injured 15 in Ansbach was facing deportation". Independent. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  29. ↑ Eddy, Melissa (25 July 2016). "Suicide Bomber in Ansbach, Germany, Pledged Loyalty to ISIS, Officials Say". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  30. ↑ "Syrian suicide bomber - nicknamed 'Rambo' - appears in chilling ISIS video threatening that the West 'will never live peacefully'". Frankfurter Neue Presse. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  31. 1 2 "Linken-Politiker setzte sich für Bleiberecht von Syrer ein". Frankfurter Neue Presse. 26 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  32. ↑ Helmar Büchel; Florian Flade; Kristian Frigelj; Matthias Kamann; Wolfgang Büscher ,. "Ein neues Deutschland". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 28 September 2016. Vor einem Weinlokal in der Altstadt explodiert die Bombe im Rucksack. Er hat sie in der Asylunterkunft gebaut.
  33. 1 2 Connolly, Kate (25 July 2016). "Pressure grows on Angela Merkel to start closing Germany's open door". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  34. ↑ "German Refugee Policy Under Fire After a Week of Bloodshed". New York Times. AP. 25 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
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