Iraq News

Berlin attack suspect pledged allegiance to ISIL in video

The main suspect in the Berlin Christmas market attack was shown pledging allegiance to the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) in a video released on Friday (December 23rd), AFP reported.

The video, released by ISIL-linked agency Amaq, showed Tunisian Anis Amri, who was killed when he opened fire on Italian police on Friday, pledging allegiance to ISIL chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The two-minute, 42-second video showed Amri speaking directly to a camera while standing outdoors wearing a winter coat and earphones.

It was unclear exactly where or when the video was filmed.

Amaq had earlier said the man shot dead by Italian police near Milan on Friday carried out the Berlin attack.

An Italian police officer shot Amri dead near Milan's Sesto San Giovanni train station, four days after the attack in Berlin in which 12 people were killed when a Polish-registered articulated truck, laden with steel beams, slammed into a crowded holiday market late Monday, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere thanked Italian police for their swift action, saying the officers had been "especially brave" and done "excellent work".

"I am very relieved that this attacker no longer poses a threat," he said, adding that a team of German federal police were bound for Italy to assist in the probe.

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