A 27-year-old Syrian refugee who was denied asylum in Germany and was waiting to be deported killed himself and injured 15 others when he detonated a backpack full of explosives Sunday night outside of a music festival in southern Germany.
The bomb went off around 10 p.m. local time near the entrance of a wine bar outside the Ansbach Open festival. The terrorist reportedly tried to enter the festival, but was turned away because he didn't have a ticket. He then detonated the explosives in his backpack. There is evidence that pieces of metal were added to the explosive device to maximize damage.
About 2,500 people were attending the music festival, and the detonation would have been more devastating if the bomber had been able to enter. As it was, the bomber only managed to kill himself.
Of the 15 people injured, only four were wounded seriously.
The Syrian man, whose name has not yet been released to the public, had stayed in Germany for two years despite his asylum claim being rejected after only one year. He was given accommodation in Ansbach, a city with a U.S. military base and a population of about 40,000 people. He was soon to be deported to Bulgaria, according to reports.
“Syrians cannot at the moment be deported to Syria, but that doesn’t mean that Syrians overall cannot be deported,” Tobias Plate reported at a government news conference.
“The Syrian in Ansbach was facing deportation and this was to Bulgaria,” he concluded.
People who knew the terrorist said that he suffered from suicidal tendencies and was a compulsive liar.
“I think he had some issues because, you know, he told lies so often without any reason, and I understand that he wants to be the center of attention, you know, he needed attention,” said Mr. Khodadad, a former residents of the hotel where the bomber had lived.
The bomber left behind a video on his cell phone where he pledged his allegiance to the leader of ISIS. In the video, the terrorist announced his intention to carry out the attack “as act of revenge against Germans, because they obstruct Islam.”
“I believe that after this video we cannot doubt that this attack was an Islamic terror attack,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann announced on Monday.
This is the third attack in the past week to take place in Bavaria, the federal state in Southeast Germany. Herrmann called it a “very terrible week,” saying:
“Yes, this was also for me personally a very terrible week, as I think it was for most of the people in Bavaria. The attack last Monday on the train in Qurzburn, then the rampage...in Munich Friday night, and now again an attack.”
The attack on the train and this most recent bombing were all reportedly inspired by ISIS, and were carried out by refugees seeking asylum in Germany. Angela Merkel has welcomed in hundreds of thousands of migrants into the country, causing many people to have concerns about cultural integration and terror threats.
The increase in the number of attacks on the German people at the hands of ISIS-inspired migrants have caused a growing mistrust toward refugees -- and the government that keeps harboring them.