Four Syrian asylum seekers have been arrested in connection with an attack on a Turkish mosque in the German city of Ulm which is believed to have been politically motivated.
The Stuttgart prosecutor confirmed the arrest of the four Syrian asylum seekers, aged 18, 24, and 27 years old, on Tuesday with spokesman Jan Holzner saying that one of the four had confessed to the arson last week, Die Welt reports.
Holzner added that none of the other three suspects in custody had admitted guilt, but that the arson is believed to have a political motive. The four men are under investigation for attempted murder along with arson and the public prosecutor is also looking into the political aspect of the crime, Holzner added.
The attack occurred on the evening of March 19th when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the building which houses the mosque as well as residential properties in which eight people live. Several other incendiary devices were also found at the scene, according to investigators.
The incident comes after a series of attacks on Turkish mosques following the Turkish government’s military campaign in the northern Syrian city of Afrin against Kurdish forces including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which is designated a terrorist group in many countries.
The Turkish government has blamed the attacks on the mosques on the PKK and their far-left supporters in Germany, including the alt-left Antifa group which joined PKK protests in Berlin.
“We note with concern that attacks on Turkish mosques in Germany by racist and anti-Islamic groups and the terrorist organisation PKK have recently increased,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry told the German government last month.
Inter-ethnic violence is on the rise in Germany following the migrant crisis of 2015 as asylum seekers have taken conflicts originating in the Middle East onto the streets of Germany. Recently, a mob of over 50 migrants from Turkish, Lebanese, and Kurdish backgrounds fought each other with machetes on the streets of Duisburg.