On Saturday, Tunisia’s authorities said it had arrested the nephew of Anis Amri, the suspected Berlin truck attacker gunned down by Italian police, as Germany searched for the jihadist’s possible accomplices.
Tunisia’s interior ministry said the nephew and two other suspects, aged between 18 and 27, were detained on Friday and were members of a “terrorist cell” connected to Tunisian-born Amri.
It made no direct link between the trio and the Berlin assault on Monday, when Amri is believed to have hijacked a truck and used it to mow down people at a Christmas market, killing 12.
The 24-year-old went on the run and was the focus of a four-day manhunt before being shot dead by police in Milan after opening fire first.
The Berlin rampage was claimed by the Islamic State group, which released a video on Friday in which Amri is shown pledging allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Tunisian interior ministry said in a statement that Amri had sent money to his nephew so he could join him in Germany, and had allegedly urged him “to pledge allegiance to Daesh (IS)”.
The unnamed nephew also claimed his uncle was the leader of a jihadist group based in Germany, known as the Abu al-Walaa brigade, it added.
The arrests come as German authorities probe whether Amri had help before or after the attack. Hundreds of investigators are set to work on the case throughout the holiday season.
“It is very important for us to determine whether there was a network of accomplices… in the preparation or the execution of the attack, or the flight of the suspect,” federal prosecutor Peter Frank said Friday.
AFP
