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WORLD NEWS Monday 26 august 2024
The suspect in the Germany attack was motivated by Islamic State

group ideology, prosecutors say

SOLINGEN, Germany (AP) The festival, which was
— A Syrian man on Sunday due to have run through
was ordered held on suspi- Sunday, was canceled as
cion of murder and mem- police looked for clues in
bership in a terrorist orga- the cordoned-off square.
nization in connection with Instead, residents gathered
the Solingen knife attack to mourn the dead and in-
that left three dead and jured, placing flowers and
eight wounded at a festival notes near the scene of the
marking the city’s 650th an- attack.
niversary.
“Warum?” — meaning
A judge at the Federal “why” — asked one sign
Court of Justice in Karlsruhe placed amid candles and
ordered 26-year-old Issa Al teddy bears.
H. held pending further in-
vestigation and a possible Among those asking them-
indictment after federal selves the question was
prosecutors said that he The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, 62-year-old Cord Boetther,
shared the radical ideology Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. a merchant fron Solingen.
of the Islamic State extrem- (Uli Deck/dpa via AP) “Why does something like
ist group — and was acting this have to happen? It’s
on those beliefs when he on the basis of his “radi- dence. IS said on its news people injured. incomprehensible and it
stabbed his victims repeat- cal Islamic convictions” site that the attacker tar- Friday’s attack plunged the hurts,” Boetther said.
edly from behind in the decided “to kill the largest geted Christians, and that city of Solingen into shock
head and upper body. possible number of those the perpetrator carried out and grief. A city of about IS declared its caliphate in
The ruling came after the he considers unbelievers” the assaults Friday night “to 160,000 residents near the large parts of Iraq and Syria
suspect turned himself in, at the festival, the Office of avenge Muslims in Pales- bigger cities of Cologne about a decade ago, but
saying that he was respon- the Federal Prosecutor said tine and everywhere.” and Duesseldorf, Solingen now holds no control over
sible for the attack, police in a statement. was holding a “Festival of any land and has lost many
said. He is also suspected The attack comes amid Diversity” to celebrate its prominent leaders. The
of attempted murder and The suspect is a Syrian citi- debate over immigration anniversary. group is mostly out of glob-
serious bodily injury, pros- zen who had applied for before regional elections People alerted police short- al news headlines.
ecutors said. His last name asylum in Germany, police on Sept. 1 in Germany’s ly after 9:30 p.m. local time
wasn’t released in line with confirmed to The Associ- Saxony and Thuringia re- Friday that a man had as- Still, it continues to recruit
German privacy rules. ated Press. The dpa news gions where anti-immigra- saulted several people with members and claim re-
agency reported, without tion parties such as the a knife on the city’s central sponsibility for deadly at-
The suspect, wearing hand- citing a specific source, populist Alternative for Ger- square, the Fronhof. The tacks around the world,
cuffs and leg shackles, was that his asylum claim had many are expected to do three people killed were including lethal operations
taken Sunday from the po- been denied and that he well. In June, Chancellor two men, ages 56 and 67, in Iran and Russia earlier
lice station in Solingen for was to have been deport- Olaf Scholz vowed that the and a 56-year-old wom- this year that killed dozens
the initial court appear- ed last year. country would start deport- an, authorities said. Police of people. Its sleeper cells
ance. ing criminals from Afghani- said that the attacker ap- in Syria and Iraq still carry
On Saturday, the Islamic stan and Syria again after a peared to have deliber- out attacks on government
He “shares the ideology of State group claimed re- knife attack by an Afghan ately aimed for his victims’ forces in both countries as
the foreign terrorist organi- sponsibility for the attack, immigrant left one police throats. well as U.S.-backed Syrian
zation Islamic State” and without providing evi- officer dead and four other fighters.q

Wildfires in Brazil leave at least 2 dead in Sao Paulo state.

Dozens of cities are on high alert

SAO PAULO (AP) — Wild- America’s most populous way.
fires in Brazil’s southern Sao cities with more than 11 mil-
Paulo state have killed at lion residents. The government said that
least two people, officials in the city of Urupes, two
said Saturday. At least 36 At least 7,300 government employees working at an
cities have been put on workers and volunteers had industrial plant died on Fri-
high alert. been deployed across the day while trying to fight
state to “contain the ad- back a fire, but provided
Local and federal authori- vance and put out these few other details.
ties were stepping up ef- fires,” de Freitas told jour-
forts to control the flames, nalists. De Freitas warned The region has been
Sao Paulo state Gov. that the flames, spurred plagued with the worst
Tarcísio de Freitas said. on by a heat wave and a wildfires in decades, ac-
drought, may be fanned Burnt trees lie next to condominiums as wildfires rage in Sao cording to local news orga-
Paulo state in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024.
The fires have raged in the by strong winds. (AP Photo/Marcos Limonti) nization Folha de S.Paulo,
region outside the city of While the city largely hasn’t videos on social media filled with smoke and burn- which counted 4,973 fires
Sao Paulo, one of Latin been affected by the fires, show the skies of rural areas ing trees along the high- in the region just this year.q