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Berlin market attack suspect killed
Berlin attack suspect Anis Amri killed in Milan shootout
Story highlights
- Amri pulled out .22 calibre gun from backpack, say police
- Officers were not searching for Amri, stopped him as part of routine checks
(CNN)Video
has emerged of the Berlin Christmas market attack suspect Anis Amri
pledging allegiance to ISIS. The footage emerged hours after he was
killed in an early-morning shootout in Milan on Friday morning.
The
Tunisian man, who has been the subject of a Europe-wide manhunt since
Monday's market attack in which 12 people were killed, was stopped in
Sesto San Giovanni -- a district in the northeastern part of Milan --
just after 3am local time, Italian police said on Twitter.
A
video released Friday on ISIS-affiliated website, Amaq, shows Amri
pledging allegiance to the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He does
not refer to Monday's attack.
When the man was asked for his papers by Italian police, he pulled a .22 calibre gun out of his backpack and fired at them.
Italian forensics experts gather around the body of suspected Berlin truck attacker Anis Amri on Friday.
The driver of the police car returned fire, killing the 24-year-old suspect. One of the shot police officers, Cristian Morio, was recovering in hospital. A second police agent, Luca Scata, was unharmed.
Amri shouted "bastard cops" before he was killed, according to Milan's Police Chief Antonio De Isu.
Police agent Cristian Movio was injured during the shootout with Amir Amri.
In
a press conference Friday, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said
the man shot was Amri "without any doubt." The Tunisian had previously
lived in Italy.
The police who
killed Amri were not searching for him, but had stopped him as part of
normal patrol operations, Milan Police Chief Antonio De Isu said Friday.
Nobody had alerted the police to Amri's presence in the city.
Amri 'traveled from France'
Italian news agency ANSA said Amri arrived in Milan by train from the French region of Savoy.
The
French anti-terrorism prosecutor's spokeswoman, Agnes Thibault
Lecuivre, could not confirm the report, telling CNN the investigation
was ongoing.
It suggests that Amri passed through at least two European borders after fleeing Berlin.
In
response, Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front
Party, criticized the European Union's open borders policy was a
"security disaster."
German
officials are now working to determine whether Amri had a network of
people helping him flee from Germany to Italy, German federal prosecutor
Peter Frank said.
Amri was on Islamist threat list
Amri
was considered to be one of the most dangerous Islamists in the country
months before Monday's attack, according to German intelligence
officials.
He was put on a German security services list of dangerous people in March, which currently includes 549 individuals.
How the Berlin attack unfolded 01:10
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a press conference Friday that
government ministers will be assessing what security measures need to be
adapted in the wake of the attack.
Merkel
added that she had spoken to Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi about
speeding up the process of returning Tunisian nationals illegally
living in Germany.
Links to Italy
Amri entered
Italy in February 2011 without any ID and claimed to be a 17-year-old
minor, a spokesman for the Italian state police, Mario Viola, told CNN
earlier this week.
While in
Italy, he served four years in prison after he was involved in an arson
attack on a school, his father told Tunisian radio.
The scene of Friday's shootout between Berlin suspect Anis Amri and Berlin police.
Viola
said that Amri's jail term for damaging state property, assault and
arson at the Lampedusa refugee center began in late 2011. He was
released in May 2015.
Italian
authorities ordered his deportation, but Tunisian authorities wouldn't
accept the request on the grounds of a lack of proper documentation,
Viola said.
At that point, Italian authorities told Amri to leave the country, and officials lost track of him.
Italian authorities cordon off the area where Anis Amri was shot.
Amri
was "not suspected" of terrorism at the time and was considered a
"petty criminal," Viola said. The Tunisian came to Italy at the same
time as thousands of others amid the turmoil of the Arab Spring, he
said.
He left for Germany more than a year ago.
How the manhunt unfolded
Amri's fingerprints were found in the cabin of the truck
used in Monday's attack and German authorities are now investigating
whether the gun Amri used on Friday was the same one used to shoot dead
the Polish driver of the truck.
The slain driver may have been involved in a struggle with Amri before being shot.
German authorities initially detained a Pakistani asylum seeker in connection with the Christmas market attack, but he was later released and a search launched for Amri instead.
European authorities had offered a reward of up to 100,000 euros (about $104,000) for information on his whereabouts.
According
to German investigative files obtained by CNN on Thursday, Amri had
ties to an ISIS recruitment network in Germany and had previously
discussed launching an attack there.
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