Germany’s domestic intelligence chief has warned of a high
risk of extremist attacks as the number of radical Islamists in the country
have risen.
Hans-Georg Maassen, chief of the BfV agency, was speaking at
the European Police Congress in Berlin on Wednesday, two months after the Berlin
attack which left 12 people dead.
Tunisian national Anis Amri plowed a truck into a Christmas
market in December in what became the first mass casualty terror attack on
German soil. The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) claimed responsibility and
released a video of Amri pledging allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi.
The number of radical Islamists in Germany has increased
from 100 in 2013 to 1,200 last year to some 1,600 in 2017, Maasen told the
congress.
“We are currently counting 1,600 people as potentially belonging
to that group,” he said, adding that of these, authorities consider 570 to be
“dangerous” or capable of perpetrating an attack.
“We receive between two and four credible tips on planned
terrorist activity in Germany each day," Maassen said. "We have to
recognize that we are living in a different situation now than was normal.”
He added that the ease with which young people can access
extremist content online, or forge links with extremists, presented greater
dangers, as the radicalization could be invisible to family and friends.
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