Exclusive
Status: 13.12.2021 6:00 a.m.
Almost five years after the attack on the Christmas market on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, it is one rbb-Team succeeded in clearing up the identity of a suspected client. The BKA had “sanded up” a reference to him.
Who gave Anis Amri the order to carry out the attack on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz? The question is still open today, almost five years later. The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) had concrete evidence of a man early on. A team of reporters from the rbb has now succeeded in clearing up the identity of a suspected client. It is said to be a man with the civil name Ali Hazim Aziz, a high official of the so-called Islamic State (IS). Aziz bears the battle name Abu Bara’a al Iraqi.
In an interview with the rbb Sadi Ahmed Pire, board member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), confirms the identity and function of Abu Bara’a as the person responsible for the IS terrorist plans in Germany, among other places. He relies on the findings of Iraqi security groups: “Abu Bara’a was one of the top organizers of terrorist acts abroad. Especially for Germany, Great Britain and France.”
Still a threat to Germany?
The politician emphasizes that the IS terrorist is still considered dangerous by the Iraqi security authorities and is still on the country’s terrorist list. Iraqi security circles, Pire continues, have no knowledge that Abu Bara’a al Iraqi is no longer alive. “Terrorists like him have no chance for a normal life in Iraq in their villages, in their provinces. The only thing left for them is to leave the country,” says Pire. That is why such people are still a threat to Europe today.
Pire is a board member of the PUK and foreign policy spokesman, was Minister for Health and Social Affairs as well as for humanitarian aid programs and has maintained good relations with the local armed forces to this day.
Quelle gave important details
Although the Iraqi authorities apparently have no knowledge of the specific planning of the attack, the new findings fit exactly with the information that the BND received from a secret source five years ago. The source named Aziz as the client of the Christmas market attack. Some German newspapers reported about it in brief reports at the time.
However, after that, neither the BND nor the BKA seem to have consistently pursued this lead, even though the source named important details: that Abu Bara’a comes from the Al-Ramadi region, is around 45 years old and whose real name is Ali Hazim Aziz is called.
On the morning of December 31, 2016, a BND agent based in Abu Dhabi transmitted this information to Germany. The brief letter already mentioned a high-ranking IS commander, an Iraqi by the name of Abu Bara’a al Iraqi, who is said to have given the order for the act of terrorism. The BND agent pointed out that the information came from an “extremely reliable intelligence service connection”.
In the weeks that followed, the information that the Abu Dhabi-based “specialist service unit” assessed as reliable increased. The man is a high-ranking military coordinator with a large full beard, it is said literally, and “organizes the work of IS in Germany”.
No clear assignment of the person possible
But in the following weeks, the officers in the BKA and the foreign intelligence service BND got stuck. The references to the alleged commissioner of the most serious Islamist terrorist act in Germany are rated as “extremely reliable”. But “due to the multiple hits and the frequency of names”, no clear assignment of the person Abu Bara’a al Iraqi can be made, and a final evaluation of the information cannot be made. So it is in the files.
The investigators searched the Internet for the name, the files show. There were several hits, so several people who have this name. Therefore, the alleged client of the Berlin attack can not be assigned.
The BKA liaison officer in Abu Dhabi provided additional “additional information on the description of the person and the background” at an early stage. The name was already mentioned when it came to the likely client of the Paris attacks in 2015. At that time the BKA had planned additional security precautions for Germany under the code word “Galaxy”.
German authorities let trail fizzle out
In addition to the attacks in Paris, Abu Bara’a is also believed to be responsible for the attacks in the Bourj el Barajneh district of Beirut in November 2015, in which 43 people were killed. In April 2017, the German security authorities agreed to follow up on the information from the BND resident. “In consultation with the BKA, the BND will try to further elucidate the origin of the references in the UAE (United Arab Emirates – editor’s note) and to condense the information on al Iraqi”, it says in a BKA letter dated 19 April 2017. Nevertheless, it was not possible to clarify his identity.
When the Bundestag investigation committee shed light on possible mistakes and sloppiness of the security authorities in the Amri case, members of the FDP and the Greens asked about the secret information from Abu Dhabi in the 80th meeting on February 13, 2020. But the responsible BND official downplayed the message from his own agent during his questioning, assessing it as “not valuable” and “too banal”. The FDP chairman in the committee, Benjamin Strasser, did not give up and later also wanted to know from the responsible BKA official whether the lead had been seriously followed. When asked whether it just “fizzled out”, the BKA official in the investigative committee replied: “It is correct.”
Ex-IS official confirms central role
The Turkish citizen Ilyas Aydin is among the IS fighters imprisoned in Al Hasaka prison in the Kurdish-controlled north-east of Syria. For a long time he was a close collaborator of Abu Bara’a al Iraqi at IS. He is said to be jointly responsible for several IS attacks abroad, including attacks in the Turkish capital Ankara and in Suruc in southeast Anatolia.
Aydin said he didn’t know anything about the Christmas market attack in Berlin, he said in an interview with the rbb. But he confirms the central role of Abu Bara’a for the entire terror planning of the IS in Europe. According to Aydin, Abu Bara’a was the right-hand man of IS terrorist chief Adnani: “If Adnani wanted to send someone to Germany or France, for example, Abu Bara’a was asked for his opinion, for example whether the person could be trusted.” And further: “The attacks in 2014 and 2015 were all organized under the supervision of Abu Bara’a al Iraqi. That is a fact – and the Western secret services know that as well as I do.” However, Aydin claims that Abu Bara’a was killed in an American drone attack in late 2016, contradicting the Iraqi authorities.
Law enforcement required
The FDP member of the Bundestag and newly appointed State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Benjamin Strasser, explained in the rbb-Interview that he is after the rbb-Research in the Kurdish autonomous regions of Iraq and Syria in his criticism of the investigative work after the attack on Breitscheidplatz is confirmed. “I expect German security authorities to pursue the alleged mastermind of the Berlin Christmas market attack and bring them to justice,” says Strasser. After all, this man could still pose a threat to Germany and Europe. You simply owe it to the bereaved and the victims.
The federal prosecutor’s office, which is leading the investigation into the attack, did not want to comment on the research. In writing, she stated: “In view of the ongoing investigations, we cannot give you any information about whether and to what extent certain people are being investigated.”
The first broadcasts the documentary “Christmas Market.Anschlag – The Islamists’ Network” after the daily topics, while the three-part “Christmas Market.Anschlag” is available in the ARD media library from 6pm today.