ISIS Takes Credit For Berlin Truck Crash That Killed 9 People At Christmas Market
"... our worst fears have come true ..."
The terrorist group ISIS took credit after a truck plowed into a crowd gathered in a Christmas market in Berlin, killing nine people and injuring dozens.
In a seeming replay of the Bastille Day terrorist attack in Nice, France, the tractor-trailer was driven into a large crowd of people near the German capital’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Monday evening.
According to multiple German news outlets, the truck had Polish plates and was en route back home from Italy. The German news outlet Tagesthemen reported the truck’s owner had lost contact with the driver, his cousin, which caused many to surmise that the truck had been hijacked.
A witness told the Guardian that the truck rushed into the market at full speed. “It was not an accident. The truck was going 40 mph. It was in the middle of a square. There are main roads [on] either side, [where it could have come from]. But it showed no sign of slowing down,” said Emma Rushton, a British tourist.
Police said a suspect was arrested nearby, but they were unclear if he was the driver of the truck. Another person, a passenger of the vehicle, died at the scene of the crash.
A German intelligence official said the crash was “being investigated as if it were a terrorist attack.”
The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force said the Islamic State was taking credit for the incident, based on jihadist accounts the IPMF tracks using encrypted technology.
ISIS also took credit for the Nov. 28 attack at the Ohio State University in which a Somali refugee drove a car into fellow students and then attacked them with a knife.
In the November issue of its English-language magazine, Rumiyah, the Islamic State urged its followers to drive large vehicles through crowds to cause mass casualties.
The group listed as potential targets political rallies, outdoor markets, crowded main streets and “any outdoor attraction that draws large crowds,” particularly “low security” gatherings that “are fair game and more devastating to Crusader nations.”
The article said, “In a bid to ensure utmost carnage upon the enemies of Allah, it is imperative that one does not exit his vehicle during the attack. Rather, he should remain inside, driving over the already harvested kuffar [unbelievers], and continue crushing their remains until it becomes physically impossible to continue by vehicle.
This particularly market, on Breitscheidplatz, is one of the smaller ones in Berlin, but very busy because Kurfurstendamm is the city’s biggest shopping street. The square is also a youth hangout and restaurant sight, as well as a tourist draw with the zoo nearby.
“With this supposed attack on the Christmas market in Berlin, our worst fears have come true. Now the safety design of every Christmas market in Germany has to be examined — even to the point where we ask ourselves whether they can even still take place,” said Stephan Mayer, a member of Germany’s Bundestag.
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