There’s something strangely familiar about this story. An immigrant with a long criminal record yet protected from deportation by feel-good rules went on a rampage this week, stabbing a female police officer in the neck before being shot and killed by police.
This scenario played out this week in Berlin, Germany, and suspect Rafik Mohamad Yousef, a member of a terror group linked to al-Qaeda, might have been deported to his native Baghdad but for human rights rules warning that “he could have faced the electric chair” if returned to Iraq.
The Express (U.K.) reports that Yousef was convicted in a plot to kill Iraq’s prime minister. He was freed on bail and made to wear an electronic tag, which he removed before going on a rampage in the streets, waving a knife and eventually stabbing a responding police officer.
Berlin knife attack: German police shoot dead terrorist after officer is stabbed | Daily Express http://t.co/HyvpUE0cvX
— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) September 17, 2015
CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank summed up the incident today in a series of tweets.
Probable ISIS-inspired attack in Berlin. Police woman in intensive care. Details we are learning at CNN in next tweets.
— Paul Cruickshank (@CruickshankPaul) September 17, 2015
Baghdad born knife attacker Rafik Y. was shot dead by police in Spandau, Berlin. Previously convicted in Islamist terror plot.
— Paul Cruickshank (@CruickshankPaul) September 17, 2015
German terror researcher Florian Flade tells CNN Rafik Y. was convicted for 2004 plot to kill Iraqi PM Ayad Allawi on PM visit to Germany
— Paul Cruickshank (@CruickshankPaul) September 17, 2015
Recommended
Flade tells CNN knife-wielding Islamist extremist threatened pedestrians on Berlin street then immediately attacked police when they arrived
— Paul Cruickshank (@CruickshankPaul) September 17, 2015
Flade tells CNN back in 2004 German knife-attacker was linked to Ansar al Islam. Noteworthy as many in this Iraqi group now with ISIS.
— Paul Cruickshank (@CruickshankPaul) September 17, 2015
Flade tells CNN that according to investigators Berlin knife attacker removed court imposed ankle bracelet before wielding knife in street:
— Paul Cruickshank (@CruickshankPaul) September 17, 2015
The dead knife-attacker Rafiq Y. considered a "potential terrorist" by BKA, Flade told CNN. Was released from prison in 2013
— Paul Cruickshank (@CruickshankPaul) September 17, 2015
Flade notes Austrian ISIS fighter Mohamed Mahmoud called for attacks in Germany & Austria a month ago: "Take a huge knife and kill a kafir"
— Paul Cruickshank (@CruickshankPaul) September 17, 2015
Join the conversation as a VIP Member