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Manhunt Launched Across Europe for Tunisian Suspect in Berlin Truck Attack

Tunisian national Anis Amri, killed by German police for alleged involvement in Berlin Christmas market attack / AP
December 21, 2016

German police launched a manhunt on Wednesday for a Tunisian man whose identification documents were found in the cab of the truck that plowed through a Berlin Christmas market on Monday and killed 12 people.

The suspect, named Amis Amri, is being pursued across Europe's border-free travel zone that includes European Union member states, Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said, the Guardian reported. A European arrest warrant says the suspect uses six different aliases and is considered armed and dangerous, according to the Associated Press.

Germany has offered a 100,000-euro reward for information leading to Amri's capture.

Amri, 24, traveled to Italy in 2012 before arriving in Germany in 2015 where his application for asylum was later rejected, the BBC reported. Authorities were unable to deport him because Tunisia initially denied he was a citizen. Passport documentation from Tunisian officials arrived in Germany on Wednesday.

The suspect has attempted to pass himself off as Egyptian or Lebanese. He was detained in August with fake Italian identity documents.

Amri reportedly has ties to a preacher named Ahmad Abdelazziz A, who delivered sermons encouraging people to travel to Syria to fight before he was arrested in November.

German police on Tuesday morning released a Pakistani asylum seeker who had been detained as a suspect after authorities found insufficient evidence.

A Polish man found dead inside the truck with bullet and stab wounds was identified as the original driver. Officials believe he attempted to fight off the assailant before he was killed.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for Monday's truck attack that killed 12 people and left another 48 injured. ISIS offered no evidence for the claim. The terrorist group's Amaq news agency called the truck driver an ISIS "soldier," mirroring statements released after previous lone wolf attacks, including the Nice, France vehicle massacre that killed 86 people in July.

German authorities separately arrested a 24-year-old Moroccan man on Wednesday on suspicion of being a member of ISIS. He was part of the jihadist network around Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is suspected of planning the Paris terror attacks in November 2015, the AP reported. The arrest does not appear to be connected to the manhunt for the Berlin attacker.