More violence in Germany. Syrian refugee blows himself up injuring 12.

Reuters graphic showing locations of attacks in Germany. 

Germany is on edge after more violence strikes the country, the worst incident being a sucide bombing in Ansbach. Reuters. A Syrian refugee blew himself up outside a restaurant, killing himself and wounding 12 more people. The man had packed the explosive device with metal in order to cause more casualties. The man was a refugee that had been denied asylum and was supposed to have been deported. He was known to the police due to his involvement with drug dealing and other crimes. The attack did not seem to be well planned and may have been derailed when the bomber was denied entry to a music festival. The attack was the forth incident of violence in Germany recently, all of which may have some relationship to Islam or migrants. Also on the 24th another Syrian refugee murdered a pregnant woman while a mass shooting on the 22nd killed nine people. On the 18th another refugee injured five people on a train. 

Police secure the scene in Ansbach. Reuters. 

My Comment:

Germany is having a very rough couple of weeks. After long having escaped the kind of violence that France and Belgium have been having in the past couple of years, Germany has finally started to fall into the same pattern. That's the bad news. The good news is that so far there haven't been all that many deaths. The combined death toll from all of these attacks is only 10 people, not counting the attackers, I am not sure if they are counting the pregnant woman as one person or two, but either way it's a tragedy. 

That death toll could have been way worse if this attack in Ansbach had been more effective. It seems like the critical factor was the bomber being turned away from the music festival. I am guessing that if he had managed to get into the festival more people would have died to due to how close everyone would be packed in. Whoever turned this person away did their job correctly and should be commended. They are also very lucky that the bomber didn't decide to blow himself up right then and there. 

Still, the attacker was determined enough to kill himself that he just walked into a random restaurant and blew himself up. This tells me that this wasn't a very sophisticated attacker. A more professional terrorist would have called off the attack when turned away and tried something else. Or he would have blown himself up right as he was being stopped, like the ISIS attackers in Paris. This guy was mad that his plan didn't work and was to impatient to try again and because of that nobody has died from this attack besides him. He was smart enough to make a plan and skilled enough to make or acquire a bomb. But when his plan fell apart, so did he. 

It's unclear if this or any of these attacks are related to ISIS or any other terrorist group. The train attack in Wuerzberg was claimed by ISIS, which doesn't mean that they were involved, but the other three attacks have not been claimed by anyone so far. Indeed, the Munich attack may not have had any connection to Islam at all, though given the credibility of the German government and press is at zero, I am withholding judgement on that case until more information becomes available. Same thing with the stabbing in Reutlingen. The connections are probably there in a few of these cases at least, but given the lügenpresse in Germany we might never hear about them.

It seems clear that the bombing attack was a bit different though. I am guessing that this man had at least some links to Islamic terrorist groups like ISIS. The fact that he used a bomb instead of a knife or a gun makes me think that he had help. Bomb making is a lot more difficult then acquiring a gun or knife. Given the fact that the suspect was accused of being involved in the drug trade, I think he probably had connections. The rest of the attacks seem to be more of the lone wolf attacks that have become so common in Europe lately, but if any of the attacks had a direct connection to ISIS, the Ansbach attack would be it. 

All of these attacks will pour fuel onto the fire of the migrant crisis. Three of the attackers in these cases were refugees, two from Syria and one from Pakistan. The fourth was 2nd generation German of Iranian descent. Though that case looks more like a regular old mass shooting, it was still done by someone who is the descendant of non-native Germans. 

The attacks make a strong argument against letting in more refugees. Along with the increase of crime and the horrible attacks on New Year's Eve, these refugees have been causing massive problems in Germany. Until now, murder and terrorism wasn't one of them, but that is changing. I have to imagine that something will have to change in Germany. Perhaps they will start deporting people? The Ansbach attacker at the very least had no business being in Germany... 

I also have to point out that these attacks, along with the truck attack in Nice, France shows that if people want to kill, they will find away. The Wuerzberg and Reutlingen attackers used knives. The Nice attacker used a truck, to great effect. The Ansbach killer used a suicide bomb. And the one attack that used a gun as a primary weapon? Ali David Sonboly bought it from the dark web illegally. Gun control didn't stop any of these attacks, even though Germany and France have extreme gun control laws. 

I do wonder about the timing of these attacks. Though I think it is impossible that these attacks were coordinated, I do think there is something going on here. Like it or not, terrorist attacks on western targets have been extremely common lately. In addition to all the terror attacks in Europe, there has also been the attacks on the police in the United States. 

With all the media attention for these attacks, is it possible that people are being inspired to conduct their own attacks? Probably, though I would say that the propaganda ISIS has put out has also helped out quite a bit. But I think ISIS is giving the world a masters level class on how to commit terrorist acts right now. I am not surprised that people are following their lead and coming up with their own attacks. This is a problem I don't know how to fix,..

EDIT: Reuters just said that ISIS has taken responsibility for the Ansbach attack. 

BREAKING: Islamic State claims responsibility for attack outside German music festival: report

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 25, 2016