Following up yesterday's posts on attacks in Europe and the Middle East for which fanatical Muslim terrorists are responsible...In Germany, the toll from the death truck which was deliberately crashed into people thronging the Christmas market near Kaiser Wilhelm church in Berlin has climbed to an even dozen (12), with four dozen (48) reported injured.
Die Polizei arrested a Muslim-looking person caught running away from the scene, who turned out to be... wait for it... a Pakistan asylum-seeker. But now Herr Inspektor Hitler [Ed., please check name.] says they may have got the wrong man. "They all look the same," he told the press.
In a separate statement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose policy of Willkommenskultur has opened Germany's legs [Arms! shurely. Ed.] to over a million "refugees" and asylum-seekers in the last year, said she was "disappointed". Walt says she's not half so disappointed now as she will be after next year's elections.
The gunman who assassinated the Russian ambassador to Turkey turned out to be a native-born Muslim, hardly surprising since the vast majority of Turks are followers of the Prophet. If Turkey is ever admitted to the European Union (which now seems highly unlikely) it would be the first Muslim nation to be included in once-Christian Europe. The whole idea of Turkey being considered a European nation is ludicrous, but I digress...
Turkish police say it was easy for the assassin to get close to the ambassador since he (the killer) was an off-duty policeman. As he pulled the trigger (eight times) he shouted "Allahu akbar!" and other dire imprecations in Arabic, but then switched to Turkish for a rant about Syria and Aleppo. Although his family and roommates are helping police with their investigation, it's unclear whether the killer was acting in support of ISIS or the militias who are revolting against the Syrian government. This one may not be "Islamic terrorism"... merely a "political statement".
The excitement over the Berlin and Ankara attacks was such that a less spectacular incident in Switzerland got buried in the inside pages, so to speak. In Zurich, a gunman wounded three people attending prayers at an Islamic centre, before turning the gun on himself.
Witnesses to the attack reported that the gunman, dressed in dark clothes and a woolen cap, had escaped on foot after the shooting. Swiss police have not identified a motive for the attack on the Islamic centre, which was largely frequented by members of Zurich's community of Somali "refugees". An update on the investigation is expected momentarily.
Finally to the Middle Eastern sandpit of Jordan, where seven members of the country's security forces, two local civilians and a Canadian tourist were killed on Sunday in an attack on a Crusader-era castle in Karak, south of the capital, Amman.
At least four gunmen laid siege to the popular tourist attraction for reasons as yet "unexplained". Four of the attackers were shot dead by police. 15 members of the security forces were injured along with 17 Jordanian civilians and two foreigners, including the son of the Canadian lady who was killed. The attack is said to be one of the bloodiest incidents in Jordan in recent memory. ISIS has claimed responsibility for a series of weekend shootings, in a statement released today by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant internet traffic.
Further reading: Geert Wilders says Angela Merkel has blood on her hands, after Berlin attack. Fox News, 20/12/16.
