Syrian refugee blows himself up in Germany, wounds 12

A failed asylum-seeker from Syria blew himself up and wounded 12 people after being turned away from an open-air music festival in southern Germany, authorities said July 25. It was the fourth attack to shake Germany in a week - three of them carried out by recent immigrants.

The 27-year-old set off explosives he was carrying in a backpack at a bar shortly after 10 p.m. on July 24, having been refused entry to the festival in the southern town of Ansbach because he did not have a ticket, the Associated Press reported. 

Police said a dozen people were wounded, including three seriously, in the attack in Ansbach, a town of 40,000 people southwest of Nüremberg that is also home to a U.S. Army base. 

The dead man had been in treatment after twice before trying to kill himself, though the explosion was more than just "a pure suicide attempt," Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told Reuters.

Roman Fertinger, the deputy police chief in nearby Nüremberg, said it was likely there would have been more casualties if the man had managed to enter the concert venue.

The attacker's pack had contained sharp bits of metal.

"My personal view is that I unfortunately think it's very likely this really was an Islamist suicide attack," Herrmann told German news agency DPA.

The incident will fuel growing public unease about Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy, under which more than a million migrants have entered Germany over the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. 

Stephan Mayer, a deputy from Merkel's conservative bloc, insisted that it was "completely wrong to blame Angela Merkel and her refugee policy" for the rash of violence over the last week.

But Mayer...