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Kosovo man admits Frankfurt airport Islamist attack | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
A Kosovo man has told a German court he shot dead two American servicemen at Frankfurt airport but said he did not understand why he had acted as he did. | |
Arid Uka, 21, told the court he was radicalised by jihadist propaganda videos he watched online. | |
Prosecutors believe he acted alone in carrying out the first deadly Islamist attack on German soil. | |
As well as the two dead, two other US airmen were seriously injured in the attack in March. | |
"What I did was wrong, but I cannot undo what I did," Uka told the court in Frankfurt at the opening of his trial. | |
Prosecutors said Uka wanted to kill the soldiers because they were going to join the Nato-led force in Afghanistan. | |
Uka said he carried out the attack after watching a video purporting to show US servicemen raping a Muslim girl in Iraq. | |
In fact, the video was a scene from Brian De Palma's anti-war film, Redacted. | |
"I thought what I saw in that video, these people would do in Afghanistan," Uka said. | |
"I killed two people and opened fire on three others. Today I can't understand myself how I could have acted this way," he said. | |
He had no known contact with Islamist groups, prosecutors say. | |
'God is great' | 'God is great' |
Prosecutors say Uka went into one of the airport terminals, saw some US servicemen and followed them back to their military bus. They say he asked one of them for a light, asked him where the bus was going and then shot that man dead. | |
The indictment says he then boarded the bus, shouting "Allah-u akbar" (God is great), and shot another man dead. Two others were severely injured; one of them was blinded in one eye. | The indictment says he then boarded the bus, shouting "Allah-u akbar" (God is great), and shot another man dead. Two others were severely injured; one of them was blinded in one eye. |
He put his gun against the head of a fifth serviceman but the trigger jammed. | |
Prosecutors say Uka then fled into the terminal, where he was apprehended and confessed to the attack. | |
If the court accepts his confession, Uka is likely to get 15 years in prison. | |
The soldiers on the bus had just flown in from Britain and were about to travel to the nearby US air base at Ramstein, a hub for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. | The soldiers on the bus had just flown in from Britain and were about to travel to the nearby US air base at Ramstein, a hub for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
Arid Uka was born in the Kosovo town of Mitrovica but grew up in Germany. At the time of the attack, he was apparently working at the airport. | Arid Uka was born in the Kosovo town of Mitrovica but grew up in Germany. At the time of the attack, he was apparently working at the airport. |