Germany, France hit by Islamist attacks
FRANKFURT—German and French authorities arrested suspects in separate terrorist attacks on each country over the weekend.
Police in Dusseldorf said a 26-year-old Syrian man turned himself in and claimed responsibility for stabbing to death three people and injuring eight others in the German city of Solingen.
The attack, for which the Islamic State group claimed responsibility, occurred on Friday evening in the Fronhof, a market square where live bands were playing at a festival to celebrate Solingen’s 650-year history.
The arrest of the suspect threatens to stoke fears ahead of three state elections next month in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, which the anti-immigrant, far-right Alternative for Germany has a chance of winning.
The suspect came from a home for refugees in Solingen that was searched on Saturday, said North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul.
Der Spiegel, citing unidentified security sources, reported that the man moved to Germany late in 2022 and sought asylum. His clothes were smeared with blood at the time he surrendered.
IS ‘soldier’
The Islamist group described the man who carried out the attack as a “soldier of the Islamic State” in a statement on its Telegram account on Saturday: “He carried out the attack in revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
Hendrik Wuest, premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, on Saturday described the attack as an act of terror.
Arson
Police in southern France, meanwhile, arrested a man suspected of setting fires and causing an explosion at a synagogue in the seaside resort of La Grande Motte in southern France on Saturday in what officials suspect was a terror attack, the country’s interior minister said.
“The suspected perpetrator of the criminal fires at the synagogue has been detained,” minister Gerard Darmanin said on X.
An official in the state prosecution service added that two people associated with the suspect were also detained.
La Grande Motte’s mayor, Stephan Rossignol, said CCTV footage showed an individual setting fire to two cars. He had a Palestinian flag draped around his waist, his head covered by a red Palestinian keffiyeh.
Two fires were also started at the entrance of the synagogue, damaging two doors, but were quickly put out, investigators said.
An explosion in one of the burning cars injured a police officer who had rushed to the scene.President Emmanuel Macron called the incident “an act of terror,” adding on X: “The fight against anti-Semitism is a daily fight.”
Facing up to the reality of climate change