German Police Arrest Suspected Terrorist, ‘Osama the German,’ for Plotting Truck Attack on Pro-Israel Rally: Report
The Duisburg native reportedly wanted to die a martyr in an attack on a rally at North Rhine-Westphalia.
Armed federal agents in Germany raided the home of a Hamas
sympathizer at Duisburg who was allegedly planning to attack a
pro-Israel demonstration in the coming days, according to a report in
the German press.
Berlin’s Bild newspaper reports
Tuesday that authorities arrested a terrorist that goes by the name
Tarik S. after foreign intelligence agencies alerted them to online
chatter by the Duisburg native suggesting that he wanted to die a martyr
in an attack on a rally in North Rhine-Westphalia. The intent was to
drive a truck through the rally and injure and kill as many as possible,
according to the report.
Bild quotes German intelligence officials as saying that the suspect
was inspired by an Islamist attack at Brussels last week that left two
Swedish football fans dead. Police in France charged two men in connection with that attack, during which the 45-year-old Tunisian man was killed, Tuesday.
German officials believe Tarik S. was radicalized by jihadist cells
in the German city of Herford. He traveled to Syria via Turkey in 2013
to join ISIS and took on the nom-de-guerre “Osama the German” and
appeared in one video beside a decapitated victim. He was arrested upon
his return to Germany in 2016 and sentenced to five years in prison in
2017.
Germany has seen a significant increase in the number of reported
antisemitic incidents since the war in Israel began October 7. Police
there have responded by banning most rallies expressing support for
Hamas and the Palestinians, and schools in Berlin have banned students
from wearing Palestinian flags, kufiyas, and “Free Palestine” stickers.
After assailants threw two Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in
central Berlin and vandals attached Stars of David to the facades of
several buildings, Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, vowed a “zero
tolerance” approach to antisemitism.
