Islamic State-Inspired Syrian Migrant Confesses To Triple-Murder At ‘Festival Of Diversity’ In Germany

A Syrian asylum-seeker has confessed to a knife attack at a “Festival of Diversity” that killed three and wounded eight, German authorities said on Sunday as they investigated the man’s apparent ties to the Islamic State terror group. The incident has intensified the country’s immigration debate as critical elections approach in September. 

Owing to German privacy laws, authorities have only identified the prisoner by his first name and last initial — “Issa Al H.” Prosecutors say he was motivated by “radical Islamist convictions,” and lashed out at people perceived to be non-believers, directing repeated stabs at their necks and upper bodies. 

Suspect “Issa Al H.” is unloaded from a police helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany (Ronald Wittek/EPA via Spiegel)

The Friday-night attack took place at a town square in the western Germany city of Solingen, as festival-goers listened to a live music performance amid festivities being held on the occasion of the city’s 650th anniversary — rather than emphasizing German heritage and history, the organizers were seemingly determined to put “diversity” front and center. The event was supposed to last all weekend, but was cancelled shortly after the bloodshed. 

The Islamic State (IS) claimed the assailant was acting as the group’s “soldier,” and posted a video that purportedly shows the 26-year-old holding a long knife as he swears his loyalty to the group’s leader, and says he’s chosen to kill as many non-believers as possible at Solingen’s Festival of Diversity. He says he’s from Deir al-Zor, an eastern Syria city on the Euphrates where IS is still active.  

While this will likely receive light attention in major media that avoids examination of terrorists’ motives that spring from Western foreign policy, the man in the video says his then-imminent attack will be an act of retaliation for the killing of Muslims in Syria, Iraq and Bosnia. He also says he is seeking vengeance for the “people of Palestine” who are being massacred by “Zionists.” With western backing, Israel’s attack on Gaza in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians. 

A screenshot from a video posted by Islamic State that purportedly shows the Syrian perpetrator of the Solingen knife attack (via Spiegel)

Der Spiegel reported he arrived in Germany in late 2022 and requested asylum. However, under European asylum rules, he was supposed to be Bulgaria’s responsibility. When German authorities sought to transfer him to Bulgaria in June 2023, he’d gone into hiding. However, no warrant for his apprehension was issued as he was apparently deemed harmless. There was also a logistical consideration, as Germany was essentially out of space to hold detainees. By August of last year, the transfer deadline had passed and he was Germany’s problem alone. Rather than arresting and deporting him, the country granted him protection and moved him to Solingen, where he carried out his attack on Friday.    

Other horrors attributed to IS in recent years include a March attack on a Russian concert hall that killed 143 people and January bombings in Iran that killed close to 100. The 19-year-old arrested in Austria on charges of planning a massacre at a Taylor Swift concert earlier this month was said to have, like the Solingen slayer, sworn allegiance to IS. 

Dueling protests erupted in blood-stained Solingen on Sunday, pitting anti-immigration conservatives against leftist counter-protesters (Wolfgang Rattay via Reuters)  

The attack comes in the final run-up to Sept. 1 elections in the German states of Saxony and Thuringia, where polls indicate the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party may become the first or second-most prominent party. Center-right and right-wing parties said the bloodshed should convince Germans to elect politicians who want to cut off the flow of third-world immigrants to the country. 

“If Solingen is not the turning point for the coalition, then I don’t know what else has to happen for some people here to finally come to their senses,” said Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz. 

Striking a similar tone, CDU senior official Jens Spahn said, “For years, hundreds of young men from Syria and Afghanistan have been coming to Germany and Europe every day. This must finally end.” Leftists, however, rejected their demands, with Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Saskia Esken, for example, saying an immigration halt would “not be compatible with our laws, not with the European Refugee Convention, not with our constitution.”  

Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann announced he was in discussions to put new knife-control laws on the books. The CDU’s Merz ridiculed that pursuit, saying “the problem is not the knives, but the people who carry them around. In the majority of cases, these are refugees, and in the majority of the attacks, there are Islamist motives behind them.”