BERLIN: German intelligence sources said the suspect in the Berlin terrorist attack was overheard as offering to carry out a "suicide attack" several months ago. No order was given to arrest Anis Amri, and investigators wrote him off as an "errand boy". A surveillance team monitoring a well-known extremist preacher, intercepted a call from Amri in which he made the offer, as per a media report.
It was claimed that Amri was seen entering a Berlin mosque that had been under police surveillance in the hours after the attack. An image of the suspect leaving the mosque was released by regional broadcaster RBB. The place of worship which was earlier searched in the day, was reportedly shut down by authorities. Prosecutors said they had found Amri's fingerprints on the lorry that ploughed into a Chrisrmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 49. "We believe that Anis Amri was steering the truck," a spokesman for the federal prosecutors said. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said, "We can tell you today that there are additional indications that this suspect is with high probability the actual perpetrator."
Following the attacks, police have raided apartments and mosque complexes in a manhunt for the 24 year old. The report also said that the police knew Amri wanted to carry out an attack, but he was never seriously taken. The claims were supported by a report in Focus, a rival publication, that a regular informant warned police Amri was planning an attack in July, but that he was allowed to slip away. Both sets of claims centre on the immediate circle of Abu Walaa, an Iraqi known as "the faceless preacher." The cleric, whose real name is Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A, was arrested in November on charges of recruiting volunteers to fight for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
