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Italy: Berlin Attack Suspect Killed | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Friday. She spoke hours after Italian officials confirmed that police had shot dead Anis Amri. Photo: Hannibal Hanschke /Reuters


Rome, Berlin- Anis Amri, the lead suspect in the attack on a Berlin Christmas market, has been shot, according to the Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti. “The man killed was without a shadow of doubt Anis Amri,” Minniti said in a news conference.

Minniti told reporters that Amri was stopped by two policemen at around 3 a.m. (2:00 GMT) in front of the Sesto San Giovanni train station, north of Milan. When he was asked for his identification papers, Amri pulled a gun and shot one of the two policemen — he in turn was then shot dead by the police.

German Federal Prosecutor Peter Frank later on Friday confirmed that the person shot dead by Italian police was Amri. He said that investigations would, however, continue in a bid to identify any person who might have helped Amri.

At a news conference on Friday afternoon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel assured that the direct threat is now over but the terrorist threat is still there.

Earlier, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere also hailed the actions of the two Italian police officers and expressed his relief that Amri no longer posed a danger.

Besides, a video of Amri pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been published by Amaq news agency. In it, Amri calls for ISIS supporters to take revenge against crusaders bombing Muslims.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack — a security source reported to Amaq that Berlin attack executor is an ISIS member and has conducted the attack as a response to calls for targeting international coalition countries, knowing that Germany is part of this coalition, led by U.S. against ISIS.