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Italy: Berlin Attack Suspect Shot Dead

by VOA News

   WASHINGTON --

   Italy's interior minister says the Tunisian man suspected of the
   terrorist attack in Berlin has been shot dead in Milan.

   Details are expected shortly when Marco Minniti holds a news
   conference.

   Anis Amri is shown in handout pictures from the German
   Bundeskriminalamt Federal Crime Office. Amri is suspected in Monday's
   truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.

   Market reopens

   The Christmas market in Berlin, where 12 people were killed by a man
   driving a large truck Monday, has reopened with a heavy police presence
   and concrete barriers installed around its edges.

   The event's organizers made the decision to reopen the market without
   party music or bright lights, which have been replaced by candles and
   flowers left at the site of the attack as tribute for those that were
   killed.

   Manhunt across Europe

   Authorities have been engaged in a manhunt across Europe in search of a
   24 year-old Tunisian man whom German officials said should have been
   deported months ago.

   Anis Amri, the main suspect in the attack, was a rejected asylum seeker
   who had been under police surveillance following a tip he might try to
   buy weapons for a possible attack. But that investigation was dropped
   in September.

   German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said during a Thursday news
   conference there is a "high probability" Amri is responsible for the
   attack.

   "We can report today that we have new information that the suspect is
   with high probability really the perpetrator," he said.

   Police found Amri's identification documents and finger prints in the
   cab of the truck, German officials confirmed Thursday.

   His asylum application was denied six months ago, but he was not sent
   back to Tunisia because of problems with his documents.

   Walid, brother of suspect Anis Amri who was sought in connection with
   the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, speaks to members of
   the media near their family home in Oueslatia, Tunisia, Dec. 22, 2016.

   Renewed questions

   Those revelations have renewed questions in Germany about how the
   country vets the thousands of people who have entered the country
   looking for asylum. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a day after
   the attack it would be hard to bear if an asylum seeker were
   responsible.

   "This would be particularly sickening for the many, many Germans who
   work to help refugees every day and for the many people who really need
   our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country," she
   said.

   Amri's family members said they were stunned to learn he was the main
   suspect in the attack, and his brother urged Amri to turn himself in.

   "I ask that he turn himself into the police," Abdelkader Amri told the
   Associated Press. "If it is proved that he is involved, we disassociate
   ourselves from it."

   Abdelkader said Anis left Tunisia in 2011 to go to Europe and he may
   have been radicalized in an Italian prison, where he served three years
   for setting a refugee shelter on fire.

   After leaving jail, Amri arrived in Germany in July 2015, where he
   requested asylum. His asylum request was denied, but he could not be
   deported because he had no passport and Tunisia declined to accept him.

   Since he couldn't be deported, Amri was issued a stay of deportation
   paper, which is the document police found in the truck he used to
   murder 12 people.

   German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Justice Minister Heiko Maas (left) and
   Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere during a statement after visiting
   the Bundeskriminalamt Federal Crime Office Police in Berlin, Germany,
   Dec. 22, 2016.

   Merkel proud of Germans

   Merkel said Thursday she was proud of the public reaction to the attack
   and how calmly most people took it.

   "I am certain we will meet this test we are facing," she said.

   A U.S. State Department official said two U.S. citizens were among the
   48 people injured during the attack, but provided no further details
   about those people.

   The Islamic State group said it inspired the attack through its call
   for people to strike members of a coalition that is fighting the group
   in Syria and Iraq.

   Before Amri emerged as the main suspect, police had detained a
   Pakistani man on suspicion of involvement in the Christmas-market
   attack, but he was later cleared and released.