Tunisia arrests Berlin terror attack suspect’s nephew

Tunisian security forces have arrested the nephew of Anis Amri, the man suspected of carrying out the deadly terror attack at a Christmas market in Berlin, as well as two other suspects.

The Tunisian interior ministry said that the three men, aged between 18 and 27, were members of a “terrorist cell” and that they are being detained overnight.

In a statement, it said that the three suspects had been active in the towns of Fouchana, outside Tunis, and Oueslatia near Amri’s hometown of Kairouan, some 150km south of the capital.

It added that Amri’s nephew had confessed that he had communicated with his uncle via the encrypted chat application Telegram so as to evade security surveillance.

According to the statement, Amri had sent money to his nephew to travel to Germany and join a jihadist group, and had encouraged him to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State militant group.

Meanwhile, Spain’s interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido announced that intelligence services in the country are investigating a possible internet communication between Amri and a Spanish resident on 19 December.

Tunisian-born Anis Amri, 24, was shot dead by Italian police near Milan in the early hours of Friday. It followed a Europe-wide manhunt for the man suspected of driving a lorry through the crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin on 19 December, an attack that left 12 people dead and 49 injured.

A United Nations report in 2015 said that around 5,500 Tunisians – mostly young people aged between 18 and 35 – were fighting amongst terror groups in Syria, Iraq, Libya and, to a lesser extent, Mali. In November this year, Tunisia’s interior ministry said that around 800 fights had returned to the North African country.