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    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Suicide bomb hits Ansbach, Germany in latest violent attack

    WATCH THE VIDEO AT THE LINK - Ansbach is home of a large US military base.

    Suicide bomb hits Ansbach, Germany in latest violent attack


    Ansbach, Germany (CNN)A Syrian asylum seeker exploded a suicide bomb outside a music festival in southern Germany Sunday night, in the latest violent attack to rattle the country in the past week.

    Twelve people were injured by the blast in the city of Ansbach, three of them seriously, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said at a news conference Monday. The bomber, a 27-year-old Syrian national who was known to police, was killed, Hermann said.


    The backpack used to carry an explosive device is found at the scene.

    The attack took place at the final concert of the Ansbach Open festival, where an audience of about 2,500 was in attendance, police in Middle Franconia, the region where the attack took place, said in a statement.



    One person killed in explosion in southern Germany 01:41

    At about 9:45 p.m. local time Sunday, security staff at the concert noticed a suspicious person wearing a backpack pacing up and down around the entrance to the event, the statement said.

    The man had been denied entry into the concert as he did not have a ticket, according to Hermann.

    The police statement said that the bomber "lingered around in the outdoor seating area of a nearby wine restaurant."

    "An explosion took place at around 10:10 pm in that area after the young man briefly leaned forward, according to eye witness accounts," it said.


    Special police officers secure a street near the house that was occupied by the bomber.

    The music festival and surrounding area were then evacuated.

    Herrmann said the attacker's backpack contained screws and nails, in an apparent bid to inflict widespread damage.

    Attacker had sought asylum

    Authorities said the bomber, who has not been named, entered Germany two years ago.

    He had applied for asylum in the country, but his application was rejected. However, he remained in the country, as it is German policy to not allow rejected applicants to return to war zones.

    The bomber was known to police in Ansbach for previous offenses, including drug crimes, Herrmann said. He had also twice attempted suicide before the bombing.


    Police watch a hearse leave the scene of the suicide attack.

    "Because how this backpack and the bomb were packed, especially with so many metal splinters, which could have killed and injured many more people, this act cannot be purely assessed as a suicide," Herrmann said.

    The attack has not been confirmed as terrorism, Hermann said, but there are strong indications it may be. Police say it is unclear whether the attacker was an Islamist.

    Bavarian state police are searching the home of the attacker, which is in a hotel currently being used as a refugee shelter, according to spokesman Michael Petzold.

    Ansbach, with a population of about 40,000, is a major U.S. military garrison town, with around 5,000 members of the military living there along with civilians, contractors and retirees. There are three military installations in the Ansbach area, according to the garrison's website.

    'Terrible week' in Bavaria


    A policeman with a machine gun stands guard in Ansbach.

    The Ansbach bombing is the third attack in the southern German state of Bavaria in recent days, a spate of violence that has rattled the country and fueled criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel's immigration policies.

    A week ago, a 17-year-old who had arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied minor from Pakistan or Afghanistan carried out a stabbing attack on a train in Wurzburg, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Ansbach.

    The attack, which authorities said appeared motivated by ISIS propaganda, has left four patients still in hospital, one of them in an induced coma, medical officials say.

    On Friday, an 18-year-old with dual German and Iranian nationality went on a shooting spree in a busy shopping district in the Bavarian capital, Munich, killing nine people before killing himself.

    Police said the gunman was a mentally troubled individual who was obsessed with mass shootings and may have planned the attack for a year, and have not found a link to terror groups.

    And on Sunday, hours before the Ansbach attack, a 21-year-old Syrian asylum seeker killed a woman with a machete in Reutlingen, in the neighboring southern German state of Baden-Wurttemberg.

    The attacker had come to Germany a year ago, according to a police statement, and was known to police for property thefts and assault. The woman was 45 years old and from Poland, police said.

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/24/world/...germany-blast/

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    Twelve Injured After Syrian Man Blows Himself Up Outside German Festival

    7/25/2016 by Associated Press

    A man who blew himself up and injured 12 people after being turned away from an open-air music festival was a 27-year-old Syrian who had been denied asylum, Bavaria's top security official said early Monday.

    "We don't know if this man planned on suicide or if he had the intention of killing others," Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said.

    He added that the man's request for asylum was rejected a year ago, but he was allowed to remain in Germany because of the strife in Syria.

    Three of the 12 victims suffered serious injuries, Herrmann said.

    A spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Ansbach said the attacker's motive was unclear.

    "If there is an Islamist link or not is purely speculation at this point," said the spokesman, Michael Schrotberger.

    The explosion came as Germany, and the southern state of Bavaria in particular, has been on edge. Two days earlier, a man went on a deadly rampage at a Munich mall, killing nine people and leaving dozens wounded.

    And an ax attack on a train near Wuerzburg last week wounded five. A 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker was shot and killed by police as he fled the scene in the attack Monday.

    On Sunday, authorities said they were alerted to an explosion in Ansbach's city's center shortly after 10 p.m.

    The three-day open-air concert was underway, with about 2,500 in attendance, when it was shut down as a precaution after the explosion. Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson was the scheduled performer at the Ansbach Open music festival,
    Bavarian public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk reported that 200 police officers and 350 rescue personnel were brought in after the explosion in Ansbach.

    The recent attacks in Bavaria, a picturesque, mountainous haven for travelers, came shortly after a Tunisian man driving a truck killed 84 people when he plowed through a festive crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, along the French Riviera.

    In Munich on Sunday evening, 1,500 people gathered at the scene of the shooting there, lighting candles and placing flowers in tribute to the victims of an 18-year-old German-Iranian. Police said that he had planned the attack for a year.

    After the Munich attack, Herrmann urged the German government to allow the country's military to be deployed to support police during attacks. Germany's postwar Constitution, as a result of the excesses of the Nazi era, only allows the military to be deployed domestically in cases of national emergency.

    Herrmann has called those regulations obsolete and said that Germans have a "right to safety."

    In January, Bavaria's justice minister launched a state program in Ansbach meant to teach refugees the basics of law in their new host country, amid growing tensions and concerns in Germany about how it would integrate the estimated 1-million-plus migrants it registered crossing into the country last year. Classes include lessons about freedom of opinion, the separation of religion and state and the equality of men and women.

    "Germany is an attractive country because it respects the dignity of every human being," an educational film shown to newcomers said, "and it is supposed to stay that way."
    http://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...erman-festival

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