“The Federal Republic of Germany is a declared and actual target for jihadists’ violence. German agencies and interests are subjected to the hypothetical threat within the country as well as in other parts of the world,” the Bild newspaper quoted the secret report prepared in June. The paper said that there is the heightened risk that sympathizers of terrorist organizations that have no direct links to such groups may commit their own attacks. According to the report, there is an almost uncalculated in the long term threat posed by jihadists, who left for Syria and Iraq and later returned in Germany. The document concluded that Germany may be targeted at any time with air, railway transport as well as crowded places such as fairs, markets and festivals being especially vulnerable to possible terror attacks.
The report was prepared a month before Germany suffered a number of terror attacks in July.
On July 18, a 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker launched an axe and knife attack on passengers of a commuter train in Bavaria, wounding five tourists. Four days later, a German of Iranian origin shot down nine people in Munich and committed suicide. On July 24, a Syrian refugee exploded a bomb outside a music festival in Bavaria’s Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 bystanders, while another Syrian killed a woman with a machete in Reutlingen near Stuttgart. The Islamic State (IS) extremist group, banned in Russia, claimed responsibility for the bombing.
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