Germany charges teen ISIL supporter

BERLIN // A 16- year- old girl who stabbed a policeman at a Hanover train station was acting under orders from ISIL, German federal prosecutors said yesterday.

Safia S, who is awaiting trial, was charged with attempted murder and with being a supporter of the extremist group, prosecutors said. The German-Moroccan dual citizen travelled to Istanbul in January where she met members of the group who planned to help her enter ISIL- controlled territory in Syria.

She received orders from the militants to carry out a “martyrdom attack” in Germany, prosecutors said. The teenager stabbed and seriously wounded the officer in February after she was brought back to Germany by her mother.

In Germany, Safia contacted ISIL members online and asked for help planning an attack, prosecutors said.

They said a 19-year-old Syrian-German who knew about the plan, and who is also in custody, was charged with failing to report a crime. No date for their trials has been set. The stabbing preceded attacks last month against civilians in Germany, including two claimed by ISIL in which only the assailants died.

The attacks put chancellor Angela Merkel’s liberal migration policies back in the spotlight and prompted her government to draft plans to increase spending on security.