Berlin Truck Attack Suspect Anis Amri Visited 15 Mosques In Western Germany: Report

Anis Amri, the Berlin attack suspect, had used one of eight aliases to apply for asylum in Germany, Deutsche Welle reported Wednesday, citing public broadcaster WDR’s “Aktuelle Stunde” TV program. Amri was killed last Friday in a police shootout in Milan following a Europe-wide manhunt.

According to the report, Amri was located mostly in Berlin in February even though he was barred from leaving the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where he sought asylum. He was classified as a threat by the state criminal investigation office in the state capital Düsseldorf on May 10.

The “Aktuelle Stunde” program cited a profile of Amri stating that his behavior became suspicious when he was in Berlin and was in constant touch with people who had connections to the radical “Salafist-Islamist scene.” The report added that, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Amri was in contact with people having ties to the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.

Amri also visited 15 mosques in Germany — 12 of the mosques were in the western Ruhr region, the report added.

Last Monday’s attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, which killed 12 people, was claimed by ISIS. The militant group had called Amri a “soldier of the Islamic State.”

On Friday, he was shot dead by a local police officer in Milan. Italian authorities reportedly found a railway ticket on the 24-year-old Tunisian’s body indicating that he traveled by a high-speed train from France to the northern Italian city of Turin. He then traveled in a regional train to the Milan suburbs.