Berlin attack suspect Anis Amri: Europe's most wanted man
Kim Hjelmgaard
Tunisian national Amri is the chief suspect in Monday's truck attack at a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people.
He was on a list to be deported after his asylum application was rejected over fears he was radicalized. A bureaucratic slip-up set him free. Amri remains at large.
Authorities said Amri has used at least six different aliases and three nationalities including Egyptian and Lebanese. Police notices describe him as of average height and weight and photos show he has brown hair and eyes.
Identities of 3 Berlin attack victims emerge
He comes from Oueslatia, a small town about 100 miles south of Tunis, the Mediterranean capital of Tunisia. A troubled socioeconomic situation has turned the North African country into a breeding ground for jihadists.
As of July last year, the United Nations estimated that more than 5,500 Tunisian extremists were fighting in Syria. Fifteen thousand were prevented from going.
"Tunisian jihadists have been taking leading roles in the jihadi movements in Syria and Iraq," a study published by the Carnegie Middle East Center, a think tank based in Beirut in Lebanon, said.
Berlin Christmas market attack suspect was monitored by security services
After Christmas market attack, Berlin shaken but still stoic
According to German and Italian media reports, Amri left Tunisia sometime in 2011 after the Arab Spring uprisings, a wave of demonstrations and protests that took place across the Middle East. He traveled to Italy, where he ran into trouble, committing a robbery and setting fire to a school. The latter act landed him in jail.
He arrived in Germany in July 2015 just as Chancellor Angela Merkel was opening Germany's doors to hundreds of thousands of refugees. Amir was brought to the attention of authorities because of his suspected ties to Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah, a radical Iraqi preacher who was arrested in November for allegedly helping to smuggle Islamic State recruits to Syria.
Amri was labeled a "potential threat," a classification German weekly magazine Der Spiegel said means authorities believe he could strike at any time.
The Islamic State did not specifically name Amri when it said Tuesday that a "soldier" committed the deadly attack. However, German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and broadcasters NDR and WDR reported that Amri’s fingerprints were found on the driver’s door of the Polish-registered truck that slammed into the crowed market. An identity document belonging to Amri was also found in the truck.