New video released by ISIS news agency shows Berlin suspect pledging allegiance to terror group
A video released on Friday morning by the Islamic State's "news agency," Amaq, appeared to show the suspect accused of killing 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market on Monday evening pledging allegiance to ISIS.
Rita Katz, the director of SITE intelligence group, surfaced still frames and comments from the video on Twitter.
"Amri claims his attack is vengeance for airstrikes against Muslims, he wishes to punish 'pig-eaters' & to become a 'shaheed' (martyr)," Katz tweeted Friday morning.
Anis Amri, Tunisian suspect, was shot dead after a confrontation with Italian police in Milan early Friday morning.
Katz said that the video was published "minutes" after Amaq posted an acknowledgement that Amri had been killed by police in Milan on Friday morning.
A reporter for the Arabic-language Al Aan TV, Jenan Moussa, translated Amri's full pledge to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which he gave in Arabic:
"I pledge my allegiance to the Emir of of the Faithful, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Qurashi, for compliance and obedience, in vigor and impulsion, abjectness and abundance, and in favoring his preference to mine, and not contending the orders of his trustees, unless I witness manifest disbelief."
Amri apparently added: "If you can fight, then fight. If you are in Europe fight these crusade (sic) pigs. Each person up to his ability."
Katz, of SITE, said that the video "gives further indication that Amri had ties with ISIS, but that his attack itself was ISIS-inspired, not ISIS-coordinated."