Daesh claims responsibility for knife attack in Solingen, Germany that killed 3

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Police and ambulances near the scene where people were killed and injured in an attack at a festival in Solingen, western Germany. (dpa via AP)
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Updated 24 August 2024
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Daesh claims responsibility for knife attack in Solingen, Germany that killed 3

  • Police say still hunting suspect in Germany knife attack
  • The city of 160,000 residents was holding its “Festival of Diversity” to mark the city’s 650th anniversary

SOLINGEN, Germany: Daesh on Saturday claimed responsibility for a knife attack in Solingen, Germany that killed three people and wounded eight others, according to its Amaq news site.
The group said the attacker targeted Christians and is a “soldier of the Islamic State” who carried out the attack “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
Police began raiding a home for asylum seekers in the city center of Solingen, including with special forces, the German news agency DPA reported.
“We have received tips and therefore we are currently conducting police activities,” a police spokesperson said.
Special police units had joined the search for the unknown knifeman who cut the throats of revelers at a crowded festival in the western German city, killing three people and wounding at least eight others, four of them seriously.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested early Saturday. Police said he was suspected of knowing about the planned attack and failing to inform authorities, but he was not the attacker.
Markus Caspers, from the counterterrorism section of the public prosecutors office, told a news conference on Saturday that authorities have not found the perpetrator.
“So far we have not been able to identify a motive, but looking at the overall circumstances, we cannot rule out” the possibility of terrorism, Caspers said, though he did not offer further details.
The three people who died were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.
Thorsten Fleiss from the German police, who was the chief of operations on Friday night, said that police are conducting various searches and investigations in the entire state of North Rhine Westphalia that will continue throughout the day.
He said that it is a “big challenge” to bring together available evidence and testimony from witnesses in order to come up with a overall picture.
Fleiss also said that police have found several knives but added that he was unable to confirm whether any of them have been used as weapon by the perpetrator during the attack.

Police warned people to stay vigilant even as well wishers started to leave flowers at the scene. Authorities established an online portal where witnesses could upload footage and any other information relevant to the attack.
Churches in Solingen have opened their doors to offer a space for prayer and emergency pastoral care.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser paid a visit to Solingen on Saturday evening. She said that the government would do everything possible to support the city and the people Solingen.
“We will not allow that such an awful attack divides our society,” she said, appearing alongside Minister-President of the German State of North Rhine Westphalia Hendrik Wüst and State Minister for Internal Affairs Herbert Reul.
Wüst described the attack as “an act of terror against the security and freedom of this country.” But Faeser, the country’s top security official, hasn’t classified it as a “terror attack.”
Reul announced that the planned visit of the interior minister to the crime scene wouldn’t take place because of the ongoing police operation in the affected areas of the city. He pleaded with the public to “give time to the police” so that they can do their work. He also said that police presence would be increased at larger events, especially because the perpetrator hasn’t been caught yet.
People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. Friday to an unknown attacker having wounded several people with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof.
“Last night our hearts were torn apart. We in Solingen are full of horror and grief. What happened yesterday in our city has hardly let any of us sleep,” the mayor of Solingen, Tim Kurzbach, said, speaking to reporters on Saturday near the scene of the attack.
The “Festival of Diversity,” marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
The attack took place in the crowd in front of one stage. Hours after the attack, the stage lights were still on as police and forensic investigators looked for clues in the cordoned-off square. The rest of the festival was canceled.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
Caspers told the news conference that the 15-year-old boy was arrested after two female witnesses contacted police. They said they had listened to a conversation between the boy and an unknown person before the attack, speaking about intentions that corresponded to the events that followed.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that the perpetrator must be caught quickly and punished with the full force of the law.
“The attack in Solingen is a terrible event that has shocked me greatly. An attacker has brutally killed several people. I have just spoken to Solingen’s mayor, Tim Kurzbach. We mourn the victims and stand by their families,” Scholz said on X.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also spoke to Kurzbach on Saturday morning.
“The heinous act in Solingen shocks me and our country. We mourn those killed and worry about those injured and I wish them strength and a speedy recovery from all my heart,” Steinmeier said in a statement on Saturday.
“The perpetrator needs to be brought to justice. Let’s stand together — against hatred and violence.”
There has been concern about increased knife violence in Germany, and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser recently proposed toughening weapons laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6 centimeters (nearly 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) that is currently allowed.


’Kyiv should be ours’: Russians boosted after Putin-Trump call

Updated 3 sec ago
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’Kyiv should be ours’: Russians boosted after Putin-Trump call

“I am rooting for our country, I love it very much and I just want Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) to just, after all, get justice done,” Anastasia told AFP
Asked what her main feeling was following the talks, pensioner Sofiya said: “Uncertainty“

MOSCOW: A day after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke by phone on Ukraine, showering each other with compliments, Russian home-maker Anastasia had one wish: for Moscow to finish what it started in 2022.

In the fourth spring of Moscow’s devastating offensive, which has killed tens of thousands, diplomatic movement in recent days has given Russians a boost in confidence that victory — in some shape or another — is approaching.

In the call with Trump on Monday, the Russian leader once again brushed off calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, as demanded by the West and Kyiv.

Despite that, the US president said the “tone” of the conversation was “excellent.”

Russia controls a fifth of Ukraine and holds an upper hand on the battlefield.

“I am rooting for our country, I love it very much and I just want Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) to just, after all, get justice done,” Anastasia told AFP in the Moscow suburbs, echoing official language calling for the defeat of Ukraine.

Not knowing how or when it would happen, the 40-year-old mother, who declined to give her surname, said she was getting impatient.

“I don’t want my children to have to solve this issue. Let’s decide it here and now.”

But she had no trust in Trump — who she said is “just a businessman” who “wants money and nothing else” — and worried the “Anglo-Saxons” will trick Russia.

Putin has shown no sign of scaling down his maximalist demands for ending the Ukraine conflict, seeking little short of capitulation from Kyiv.

At talks in Istanbul last week, Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine abandon territory it still controls in the east and south.

Russia also wants Ukraine barred from NATO and for Western military support to end.

Putin has repeatedly called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to be removed from office.

Confidence was tinged with uncertainty in Moscow after the Putin-Trump call, in which the Russian leader floated a vague “memorandum” that would outline demands for a peace deal and Trump said Kyiv and Moscow would begin talks swiftly.

Many in Moscow did not know what Trump or Putin meant.

Asked what her main feeling was following the talks, pensioner Sofiya said: “Uncertainty.”

“It’s interesting what will happen to us, not only to our families, but our country,” said the 72-year-old, who declined to give her surname.

Like many, Sofiya saw no real progress from last week’s talks — the first direct negotiations on the conflict in more than three years.

“I don’t know how to express this, but I would like calm and peace,” she said.

Moscow has ramped up military censorship amid its Ukraine offensive, threatening years in prison for those who criticize or question the campaign.

Zelensky said Russia was not serious about talks and is trying to “buy time” to continue its offensive.

Putin was indeed hoping to advance more on the ground and will not “miss the opportunity” for a summer offensive, said Russian analyst Konstantin Kalachev.

He called the Trump call a “tactical victory” for the Russian leader.

“Russia is hoping to push them (Ukrainian forces) this summer,” Kalachev said.

“There will be no peace, while Russia has not yet used the option of a final offensive,” he said, highlighting the prospect of a summer ground campaign.

Though Putin said both sides should be ready to make “compromises,” few were forthcoming from the Kremlin or on the streets of Moscow.

“I believe that Odesa, Kharkiv, Nikolayev (Mykolaiv), Kyiv should be ours,” said another pensioner, 70-year-old Marina, who also declined to give her surname, reeling off a string of Ukrainian cities that Russia has not formally claimed.

Russian state TV said Moscow’s negotiators threatened in Istanbul to seize more land if Ukraine does not pull its troops out of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that Moscow claims to have annexed.

“If the four regions will not be recognized in the nearest future, the next time there will be six regions,” said state TV presenter Yevgeny Popov.

Moscow’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky later evoked Russia’s 21-year war with Sweden in the 18th century, hinting Moscow was ready for a long fight.

Marina, too, said she would support Russia to fight on, even as thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed.

“Of course, it is a big shame that our people are also dying,” she told AFP. “But there is no other way.”

Poland to try suspect in alleged Russian plot to assassinate Zelensky

Updated 9 min ago
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Poland to try suspect in alleged Russian plot to assassinate Zelensky

  • The man, identified as Pawel K., was arrested in April 2024
  • Prosecutors said he had declared his readiness to act for Russia’s military intelligence

WARSAW: Polish authorities have indicted a man charged with planning to help Russian foreign intelligence services prepare a possible attempt to assassinate Ukraine’s president, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The man, identified as Pawel K., was arrested in April 2024 after cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors, and faces up to eight years in prison.

According to prosecutors, he had declared his readiness to act for the military intelligence of the Russian Federation and established contacts with Russians who were directly involved in the war in Ukraine.

“The activities were to help, among other things, in the planning by the Russian special services of a possible assassination attempt on the life of ... the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky,” the prosecution said in a statement.

Pawel K.’s tasks included collecting and providing information on security at the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland, prosecutors said.

Poland, a hub for Western military supplies to Ukraine, says it has become a major target of Russian spies, accusing Moscow and its ally Belarus of trying to destabilize it — accusations which the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.


PKK urges Turkiye to ease leader’s solitary confinement for any peace talks

Updated 48 min 46 sec ago
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PKK urges Turkiye to ease leader’s solitary confinement for any peace talks

  • The disbanding mechanisms are unclear yet
  • Hiwa said the PKK has shown “seriousness regarding peace,” but “till now the Turkish state has not given any guarantees”

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has said Türkiye should ease prison conditions for its founder Abdullah Ocalan, declaring him the group’s “chief negotiator” for any future talks after a decision to disband.

The Kurdish group, blacklisted by Ankara and its Western allies, announced on May 12 it had adopted a decision to disarm and disband after a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that cost more than 40,000 lives.

The group’s historic decision came after an appeal by Ocalan, made in a letter from Istanbul’s Imrali prison island where he has been held since 1999.

Zagros Hiwa, spokesman for the PKK’s political wing, told AFP on Monday that “we expect that the Turkish state makes amendments in the solitary confinement conditions” to allow Ocalan “free and secure work conditions so that he could lead the process.”

“Leader Apo is our chief negotiator” for any talks with Türkiye, Hiwa added in an interview, referring to Ocalan.

“Only Leader Apo can lead the practical implementation of the decision taken by the PKK.”

The disbanding mechanisms are unclear yet, but the Turkish government has said it would carefully monitor the process to ensure full implementation.

Hiwa said the PKK has shown “seriousness regarding peace,” but “till now the Turkish state has not given any guarantees and taken any measure for facilitating the process” and continued its “bombardments and artillery shellings” against the Kurdish group’s positions.

The PKK operates rear bases in Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdistan region, where Türkiye also maintains military bases and often carries out air and ground operations against the Kurdish militants.

Turkish media reports have suggested that militants who had committed no crime on Turkish soil could return without fear of prosecution, but that PKK leaders might be forced into exile or stay behind in Iraq.

Hiwa said the PKK objects to its members or leaders being forced to leave, saying that “real peace requires integration, not exile.”


Second man in court over arson attacks linked to UK PM Starmer

Updated 58 min 28 sec ago
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Second man in court over arson attacks linked to UK PM Starmer

  • Neither of the suspects has been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act
  • Police said the first fire involved a Toyota Rav4 car that Starmer used to own

LONDON: A second man to be charged over a series of arson attacks on houses and a car linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared in a London court on Tuesday.

Over five days earlier this month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader.

Last week, Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, was charged in connection with the fires, and on Tuesday Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, appeared in court accused of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.

“The alleged offense arises from three fires set at locations linked to the prime minister in the last fortnight,” prosecutor Sarah Przybylska said. “At this stage the alleged offending is unexplained.”

Neither of the suspects has been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act which aims to target hostile state activity.

Police said the first fire involved a Toyota Rav4 car that Starmer used to own. Days later, there was a blaze at a property where Starmer once resided and the following day there was an attack on a house in north London that he still owns.

Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents “an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for.”

Wearing a light blue hoodie, Carpiuc, who was arrested on Saturday at London’s Luton Airport, spoke only to confirm his name and address while listening to the proceedings through a translator.

He was remanded in custody until a hearing on June 6 at London’s Old Bailey court when his co-accused Lavrynovych is also due to appear.

The prosecutor said a decision would be taken at this hearing as to whether the case would proceed under the terrorism protocol.

Carpiuc’s lawyer Jay Nutkins said his client had lived in Britain for nine years and had just completed a two-year degree at a university in Canterbury.

“He denies being at the scene of any of these fires,” Nutkins said.


Carpiuc funded himself through construction work, Nutkins said. On a casting website for models and actors, an entry under Carpiuc’s name said he was born in western Ukraine and was seeking work as a model.

On Monday, police arrested a third man in connection with the fires and he remains in police custody.


Russia accuses NATO of ‘aggressive actions’ in Baltic Sea after Estonia tries to seize tanker

Updated 20 May 2025
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Russia accuses NATO of ‘aggressive actions’ in Baltic Sea after Estonia tries to seize tanker

  • Zakharova said Moscow was closely monitoring events in the Baltic

MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday accused NATO of carrying out what it called aggressive actions in the Baltic Sea that impeded the freedom of shipping after Estonia tried and failed to seize a tanker.

Estonia said on Thursday last week that Moscow had briefly sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea during an attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker thought to be part of a “shadow fleet” defying Western sanctions on Moscow.

Asked about the matter at her weekly news briefing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow was closely monitoring events in the Baltic and would react to what she called illegal actions by NATO vessels if they caused risks.