• On Sunday evening, 15 people were injured by suicide bomb at a music festival in Ansbach, a city in the German state of Bavaria.
  • The bomber was 27 year old Mohammad Daleel, a Syrian asylum seeker that had been living in Germany already for two years, long before the influx of over one million refugees last year.
  • Daleel is believed to have been an active member of the Islamic State in Iraq, and the fact that the bomb in Ansbach was homemade makes this plausible.
  • In a video, the deceased bomber claims the next attack will be with car bombs.
  • He was influenced by someone he communicated with minutes before he blow himself up.




A New Video of The Bomber Has Been Released By ISIS

In a new two minute video released by ISIS, Mohammad Daleel pledges his allegiance to the Islamic State and declares more threats.

The video is titled “Video of Mohammad Daleel the Islamic State Soldier Who Carried out the Attack in Ansbach.”

Filmed on a mobile phone, the terrorist is shown with his head and face covered by a black scarf, and only his eyes are visible. In the video he pledges his allegiance to the Caliph of the Islamic State, Abu Bakra Al-Baghdadi and also to the spokesman of IS, Abu Mohammed Al-Adnani.

Daleel says that while the attack in Ansbach was with an explosive, he threatens that the next attack will be with car bombs.

“This operation is carried out with an explosive device, but next time it will be with (car) bombs.”

Addressing the German public specifically, he says, “To the German people, your country is killing you by its actions. Islamic State did not start this war with you,” and “…to the German youth: your planes that are shelling us don’t distinguish between men, women and even children.”

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Who is Mohammad Daleel?

After living in Germany for two years as a refugee, why would Mohammad Daleel detonate a bomb against German people?

According to a weekly newsletter in IS territory, An Naba, he was previously an active member of the Islamic State in Iraq, and had been for a long time.

In this publication he was referred to also as Abu Yusuf al-Karar, a name he apparently used as a nom-de-guerre. There is also doubt cast over whether Mohammad Daleel is his real name.

The Syrian man is likely to have crossed the border into Iraq, like many other jihadists, to battle against the western forces.

During the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, he went to Aleppo with a cell that used bomb attacks and grenades against the regime. Since the bomb used in Ansbach is homemade, it is likely that this biography presented by the newsletter An Naba may be true.

After being in the Nusra Front in Syria, and being severely injured by mortar shells, he left Syria for Europe to get treatment. Once ISIS declared itself, he wanted to return to Syria to carry out attacks but was unable due to border controls. So, with the support of his ISIS contacts online, he made a plan to create a larger bomb and chose the festival in Ansbach as his target.

 





Recent Attacks In Germany

The attack in Ansbach was one of three carried out by asylum seekers in the south of Germany in recent times. This incident follows just two weeks after a 17 year old unaccompanied refugee attacked people on a train in Bavaria. These attacks are causing a lot of contention in German politics, with many people seeing refugees as a security risk.

One critic is Horst Seehofer of the CSU party, who says, “We must seriously consider how such people should be treated if they violate the law or can be considered a danger.”

Some, particularly in the populist right-wing AfD party, are also blaming Chancellor Merkel for the attacks since her immigration policy allowed over one million asylum seekers into Germany in the past year. It is wrong to blame Merkel for this attack based on such ideas. It was carried out by an asylum seeker, one who was denied asylum, and who was already a member of IS in Iraq. Clearly, he was not a true refugee, and it is incorrect to place blame on a policy by which innocent civilians from Syria, who just want to live safely, can do so in Germany.

Photo Credit: Twitter, al-Amaq News Agency (ISIS propaganda)