by Jassim Mohamad
Germany Faces a Security Threat with Recurring One-Man Cell Operation
Munich police announced, on July 23, 2016, that the shooter in the shopping mall in the city was killed by committing suicide after he had killed nine people and caused the injury of sixteen others. While the police asserted that the criminal had executed his act individually, it could not identify the motives for this attack. A spokesman of the police said that a man was found dead near the shooting site in the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, who had committed suicide and is probably the only armed person in the attack.
Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrae stated that the police had dealt with the incident by giving security the priority over speed and said: “for this reason, measures have taken a longer period.” Andrae pointed out that news that another shooting had occurred downtown were not asserted.
Eyewitnesses from Munich added that the attack started at first near a takeaway restaurant where the criminal started the shooting, and then he went near to Olympia shopping mall.
The website of “Bild” German newspaper stated that the police have closed a large part of the multi-floor house, and the investigators have taken out cartoon boxes from inside the house. Until now, the police refused to assert whether the house belongs to the attacker or to his father. The police declared that it intends to announce some details.
Counter Terrorism Unit (GSG9)
Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrae denied that the new anti-terrorism unit “BEF+” had participated in the mission, and made clear that the anti-terrorism unit, known by “GSG9” is the unit which had participated in the mission. It is worth mentioning that BEF+ unit, which is the abbreviation of “Perpetuation of evidence and arrest additional unit” of the Federal Police, was established after Paris attacks in December 2015.
After the incident, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a meeting of the Federal Security Council, according to her spokesman, in order to make an estimation of the situation within the Federal Security Council. It is worth mentioning that the Federal Security Council includes Ministries of Interior, Defense, Justice, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Minister of Justice, who belongs to the Social Democratic Party, which is a partner in the ruling coalition, said: “Germany is still a possible target of a terrorist attack.” Maas added: “We must not depend on the fact that terrorism is going in a vicious circle in Germany, as the threat is still high without change.”
Germans’ Fears Increase
An opinion poll indicated that there is a sharp increase in the Germans’ fears that their country becomes a target of terrorism. More than three fourths of Germans believe that their country will be a near target for terrorism. This comes after an attack which targeted passengers of one train. An opinion poll published in July 22, 2016 showed that more than three fourths of Germans believe that their country will be a near target for terrorism. The poll stated that 77 percent expect an attack in the near time after this percentage was 69 percent in a previous time.
On the other hand, German Minister of Interior Thomas de Maizière said that Germany faces possible one-man cell attacks executed by Radical Islamic groups along the lines of the attack executed by a refugee inside a passengers train using an axe on July 17, 2016. De Maizière added to journalists “similar to another several countries in the European Union and the entire European Union, Germany is also a target of international terrorism. So I said a long time ago that the situation is serious. In Germany also we must expect attacks from small groups and jihadists.”
Minister of Family Affairs announced that the Federal Government intends to cooperate with the states governments in the field of anti- jihadists. This statement came in the wake of the involvement of an Afghan asylum seeker in attacking the passenger of a train in the south of Germany. Minister of Family Affairs Manuela Schwesig said that the Federal Government will enhance the cooperation with the states governments in the field of anti-jihadists. The Minister, who belongs to the Social Democratic Party, said: “We have to work on prevent hate and incitement which are transformed later to violence crimes.”
Results
At the operational level, the German police and security and intelligence agencies have dealt with the incident in a professional way probably more than showing the intelligence capabilities, and this is by taking precautionary measures and most notably rafts usage, helicopters to survey areas, requesting population to stay at their houses, public squares evacuation, train stoppage, train stations closure, requesting taxis to suspend work and accompanying passengers to operationally control the situation.
The German government did not hurry to link the incident to the Islamist terrorism as in France, and it requested waiting. But after just few hours, the police declared that the operation may be related to Far-right jihadists. But the spokesman of the German Chancellor said that the incident accepts all options, i.e. the terrorism of the Radical Islamic groups, Far-right politics, criminal option and psychological disorder.
The operation executor chose a commercial market for the purpose of reaching to and more polarization of media, which had exactly happened.
The operation’s time of execution coincided with IS’s execution of its one-man cell operations in Europe, which lead to the shuffle of cards about the entity which adopts the incident and the real motives for executing it.
The German government had not published any details about the operation executor as we used to in the terrorism issues. This may lead to study the reactions to this case more than other cases.
The police’s non-finding of “IS” flag in the house places the operation executor’s link to “IS” at a place, despite the fact that it is necessary to take all probabilities into account.
The investigations of the German police revealed that the Iranian young boy had jihadist terrorism tendencies and he executed his operations according to the ideology of the Far-right jihadists.
The European Union countries and the western countries realized in late time that they are in the range of the extreme groups; the Islamist jihadists and the Far-right jihadists and it grows up on their impacts. Germany expected the occurrence of such operations. Although some analysts said that Germany will apply emergency condition, till now this is excluded according to the facts. It is worth mentioning that the army participation to impose security requires the approval of parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) and is made at the time of severe conditions which threatens the German national security. This reflects Germany strategy in fighting terrorism to depend on the informative intelligence work more than deployment of troops on the ground.