The suspect in the Germany attack was motivated by Islamic State group ideology, prosecutors say

SOLINGEN, Germany (AP) — A Syrian man on Sunday was ordered held on suspicion of murder and membership in a terrorist organization in connection with the Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary.

A judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe ordered 26-year-old Issa Al H. held pending further investigation and a possible indictment after federal prosecutors said that he shared the radical ideology of the Islamic State extremist group — and was acting on those beliefs when he stabbed his victims repeatedly from behind in the head and upper body.

The ruling came after the suspect turned himself in, saying that he was responsible for the attack, police said. He is also suspected of attempted murder and serious bodily injury, prosecutors said. His last name wasn't released in line with German privacy rules.

The suspect, wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, was taken Sunday from the police station in Solingen for the initial court appearance.

He “shares the ideology of the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State” and on the basis of his “radical Islamic convictions” decided “to kill the largest possible number of those he considers unbelievers” at the festival, the Office of the Federal Prosecutor said in a statement.

The suspect is a Syrian citizen who had applied for asylum in Germany, police confirmed to The Associated Press. The dpa news agency reported, without citing a specific source, that his asylum claim had been denied and that he was to have been deported last year.

On Saturday, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. IS said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians, and that the perpetrator carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”

The attack comes amid debate over immigration before regional elections on Sept. 1 in Germany’s Saxony and Thuringia regions where anti-immigration parties such as the populist Alternative for Germany are expected to do well. In June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed that the country would start deporting criminals from Afghanistan and Syria again after a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant left one police officer dead and four other people injured.

Friday's attack plunged the city of Solingen into shock and grief. A city of about 160,000 residents near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf, Solingen was holding a “Festival of Diversity” to celebrate its anniversary.

People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time Friday that a man had assaulted several people with a knife on the city’s central square, the Fronhof. The three people killed were two men, ages 56 and 67, and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said that the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.

The festival, which was due to have run through Sunday, was canceled as police looked for clues in the cordoned-off square. Instead, residents gathered to mourn the dead and injured, placing flowers and notes near the scene of the attack.

“Warum?” — meaning “why” — asked one sign placed amid candles and teddy bears.

Among those asking themselves the question was 62-year-old Cord Boetther, a merchant fron Solingen.

“Why does something like this have to happen? It’s incomprehensible and it hurts,” Boetther said.

IS declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria about a decade ago, but now holds no control over any land and has lost many prominent leaders. The group is mostly out of global news headlines.

Still, it continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including lethal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that killed dozens of people. Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carry out attacks on government forces in both countries as well as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.

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David McHugh contributed from Frankfurt.

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted to a police car in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

A man looks at flowers laid Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, near the scene of Friday's deadly attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations in the city center of Solingen, Germany. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Flowers and candles are placed in Solingen, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, near the scene of Friday's deadly attack. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Emergency vehicles and police officers stand at a cordon in the city center of Solingen, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, near the scene of Friday's deadly attack. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Flowers and candles are placed in Solingen, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, near the scene of Friday's deadly attack. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Police emergency vehicles stand at a cordon in the city center of Solingen, Germany, in the early morning of Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, following Friday's deadly attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Flowers and candles are placed Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, near the scene of Friday's deadly attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations in the city center of Solingen, Germany. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Special police forces carry out an operation at a refugee shelter in Solingen, Germany, on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, during an investigation into a fatal knife attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations. (Christoph Reichwein/dpa via AP)

Police and ambulances near the scene where people were killed and injured in an attack at a festival in Solingen, western Germany, the German dpa news agency reported, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Gianni Gattus/dpa via AP)

Police officers stand at a cordon in the city center in the early morning in Solingen, Germany, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, following Friday's deadly attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations. (Christoph Reichwein/dpa via AP)

People lay flowers near the scene of a knife attack in Solingen city center, Germany, Saturday Aug. 24, 2024, after three people were killed and at least eight people were wounded Friday night at the festival. (Henning Kaiser/dpa via AP)

BANGKOK (AP) — Germany sailed two warships through the Taiwan Strait on Friday in its first transit of the disputed waters in more than two decades, as Berlin seeks to increase its defense engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.

China claims the self-governing democratic island of Taiwan as its own, and views such transits as provocative actions.

To challenge China's claims, the United States and allies including Australia, Canada, Britain and France, have regularly conducted “freedom of navigation” operations there, sailing through the strait to emphasize that it is international waters.

In its last naval deployment to the region in 2021-22, Germany had sought to avoid confrontation with China and attempted a diplomatic balancing act, seeking a port call in China, which Beijing denied, and by not sailing through the Taiwan Strait.

The government was widely criticized for this approach, and on this deployment to the Indo-Pacific, leaders decided to sail through the strait en route from South Korea to the Philippines in a widely-telegraphed move.

“The signal is a very simple one, which we have always maintained and I have always maintained,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters in Berlin. “International waters are international waters.”

Taiwan's Defense Ministry confirmed in a post on X that the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and support ship Frankfurt am Main had transited through the strait from north to south, adding that throughout the sail "the situation remained normal."

China, which often reacts sharply to American warships transiting the strait, was somewhat muted in its response.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that for Beijing, “the Taiwan issue is not an issue of freedom of navigation, but an issue related to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

She said that while China respects the navigation rights of all countries, “we firmly oppose provocations endangering China’s sovereignty and security in the name of freedom of navigation.”

The European Union three years ago embarked on a new strategy for the Asia-Pacific aimed at boosting economic, political and defense ties. Part of that has been focused on improving maritime security and ensuring safe passage through sea lanes.

It comes at a time when China is becoming increasingly assertive in pushing its maritime claims in the region, including on virtually the entire South China Sea and on Taiwan.

China maintains that Taiwan is part of its territory, and President Xi Jinping has not ruled out taking it by force.

China sends warplanes and warships near Taiwan on a near-daily basis in an attempt to intimidate its citizens and degrade the island’s defenses.

In response, Taiwan has extended the period of national military service to one year, building its own submarines and importing sophisticated new equipment from the U.S.

The vast majority of Taiwanese favor the current status of their island, which separated from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.

FILE - A Taiwan national flag flutters near the Taipei 101 building at the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)