ANSBACH , Germany, July 25 (UPI) — The Syrian asylum-seeker suspected of detonating a suicide bomb, injuring 12 people in Ansbach, Germany, pledged loyalty to the Islamic State prior to the attack and was scheduled to be deported, German officials said.
The still-unidentified man, 27, arrived in Germany two years prior to the bombing. His immigration application was rejected, but he was allowed to stay in Germany temporarily; he was granted refugee status in Bulgaria, although he was never deported.
“I can’t say at this moment why the deportation didn’t take place,” Tobias Plate, German Interior Ministry spokesman, said.
Police found bomb-making materials in his room, in an Ansbach refugee center, and prosecutors revealed Monday the suspect had six Facebook accounts, which he used to publish Islamist material.
Police also found a self-made video on a cellphone in which the alleged assailant said he would “attack the Germans because they stand in the way of Islam.” In the video he also pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Monday.
Herrmann added the video confirms the explosion had an Islamist objective.
The suspect blew himself up outside an outdoor festival Sunday, after being refused admittance because he did not have a ticket. Ansbach is about 25 miles southwest of Nuremberg.
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