First, IS claimed responsibility for the Solingen attack. Now the terrorist militia is distributing a video that is supposed to show the perpetrator: It shows a masked man pledging allegiance to IS.
Two days after the fatal knife attack in Solingen, the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) released a video that purports to show the perpetrator. The one-minute video shows a masked, young-looking man holding a long knife in front of the camera. He swears an oath of loyalty to the leader of IS in Arabic and calls him by the honorary title “Emir”. On Saturday, IS had already claimed responsibility for the attack, which left three people dead.
IS announced via its propaganda channels on the Internet that it had received videos from the perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen. It was not initially possible to verify when the video was recorded and whether the man shown in it was the perpetrator.
Suspected Solingen assassin: Battle name Samarkand A.?
In the video, the man calls himself Samarkand A. – possibly a nom de guerre – and says he comes from Dair as-Saur in eastern Syria, where cells of the terrorist militia are still active and carry out attacks.
The suspected perpetrator of the Solingen attack, a 26-year-old Syrian, turned himself in on Saturday evening and is now in custody. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office accuses him of having joined IS. Because of his radical Islamist beliefs, he decided to kill as many people as possible at the Solingen city festival – people he considered non-believers. The name given by the investigators is different from the one in the video.
The man in the IS video says that his attack is retaliation for the killing of Muslims in Syria, Iraq and Bosnia. Addressing his parents, he says his attack is also an act of revenge for the “people of Palestine” who are suffering massacres with the support of “Zionists” – a reference to the war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
According to some observers, the dangers of terrorism and radicalization in the Islamic world have increased as a result of the months-long war in Gaza. Alongside the USA, Germany is one of Israel’s most important allies and also one of its largest arms suppliers.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
