Suicide bomber wounds 15 in southern Germany

UPDATE (11:15 a.m.): Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Germany that killed the attacker and left 15 others wounded.

Police confirmed this morning that the attacker, a Syrian asylum-seeker, recorded a video on his cellphone pledging allegiance to the Middle Eastern terror group before blowing himself up outside a wine bar.

OUR EARLIER REPORT: A 27-year-old asylum-seeker from Syria died in a suicide attack in Germany on Sunday night, wounding 15 others.

The man, who has not been named, had been denied asylum in Germany, and officials notified him last week he would be deported back to Bulgaria, where he first submitted his asylum request. Although officials are calling the attack an act of terror, they do not know yet whether the man had any links to a specific group.

“My personal view is that I unfortunately think it’s very likely this really was an Islamist suicide attack,” Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann told German news agency dpa. Herrmann later added, “The obvious intention to kill more people indicates an Islamist connection.”

According to police, the attacker tried to walk into a music festival in the town of Ansbach, where about 2,500 people had gathered. Gatekeepers turned him away because he didn’t have a ticket. The man walked a short distance away from the festival entrance and sat down outside a wine bar. About 10 or 15 minutes later, he detonated a bomb in his backpack, which was packed with sharp bits of metal.

Officials have not said why they denied the man’s asylum request. But while in Germany he repeatedly received psychiatric treatment, including for two suicide attempts. Police had record of him being caught with drugs. After the bombing, investigators stormed the asylum shelter where he lived to look for clues about the attack. Another resident said the man, whom he identified as Mohammed, told others there he didn’t support the Islamic State terror group.

Sunday’s attack marked the end of a deadly week in Germany’s southern region of Bavaria, where four attacks left residents reeling. At the beginning of the week, a 17-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker wielding an ax and a knife wounded five people on a train. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. On Friday, an 18-year-old German-Iranian man opened fire at a shopping mall, killing 9 and wounding dozens more. Police described him as “a classic mass shooter,” and said he did not have links to terror. And hours before the Sunday night bombing, a Syrian man attacked a woman with a machete outside a bus station. The two worked together and police do not believe terrorism played a role.

But all the violence has renewed calls for stepped-up security measures. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere called for better border protections, even as he voiced support for continuing to offer refuge to Middle Eastern migrants “in reasonable numbers.”

German security officials currently are investigating 59 refugees for possible links to terror groups.