Police shot dead an Islamic extremist from Iraq after he stabbed an officer in what is believed to be a terrorist attack. The incident occurred at around 10 a.m. local time in Berlin, when four police cars arrived at the scene responding to reports about an "insane man with a knife."
While trying to subdue the man, a policewoman was stabbed in the neck, as well as took a stray bullet to the kidney, reported the Mirror. She was promptly taken to a hospital via helicopter, and is reportedly recovering after surgery and is "out of danger."
The suspect, later identified as Rafik Mohamad Yousef, was shot by other officers at the scene, he too was rushed to the hospital but died from injuries on the way there,
As it turns out, Yousef has a criminal record and was convicted in 2004 for his involvement in the assassination plot against former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, alongside two members of the Al-Qaeda affiliated group, Ansar al-Islam, according to RT.
Local authorities foiled the planned assassination a few days before Allawi arrived in Berlin, but since few details were known about the attack, the trial wasn't held until 2006. He was then jailed two years later in 2008.
In 2013 Yousef was freed on bail, but was sentenced to wearing an electronic tag around his ankle for monitoring, which he apparently removed before the attack.
At a press conference Berlin chief prosecutor Dirk Feuerberg revealed Yousef's criminal past.
"The person killed is an Iraqi citizen known to us who was convicted in 2008 of membership in a foreign terrorist organisation and sentenced to eight years imprisonment," he said, according to The Independent.
Prior to Feuerberg's statement, it was believed that Yousef was just a crazed lunatic, but after his previous acts were made public, it became clear that this was an attempted act of terror.
