Berlin terror trucker sent sick ‘selfie’ to fellow ISIS fanatics from behind the wheel of lorry just moments before he ploughed into Christmas market, killing 12

THE Berlin terror trucker who murdered 12 innocent people in a Christmas market set a sick selfie to other jihadis from behind the wheel of the lorry.

Anis Amri sent the snap along with the message "I'm in the car now, pray for my brother, pray for me," before he ploughed in to the festive crowd.

The news comes as it was revealed German anti-terror experts thought the 24-year-old was unlikely to attack, despite being a known Islamist.

Minutes before Amri allegedly rammed the hijacked truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, he sent an SMS, saying: "My brother, all is well, according to God's will. I am now in a car, pray for me my brother, pray for me."

The message, as well as the selfie taken in the truck's cab, was likely sent to a 40-year-old Tunisian arrested in Berlin on Wednesday, said the .

It also emerged Amri visited 15 mosques before the attack as well as contacting two people with known links to ISIS.

Investigators seeking to discover if Amri had accomplices said the detained Tunisian suspect "could have been involved in the attack".

But today it was revealed that they had released the man and he was no longer "the suspected contact of Anis Amri."

Frauke Koehler of the German federal prosecution service told reporters: "He has therefore been released from detention the investigation into further accomplices or possible people who knew... will continue at full speed."

She also said that authorities considered authentic a video message released last Friday, in which Amri is seen swearing allegiance to the head of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Koehler said the pistol Amri used to fire at an Italian police officer before he himself was shot dead in Milan last Friday had the same .22 calibre as the bullet fired inside the lorry cabin.

Ballistic experts were still checking whether Amri used the same handgun in Milan and in Berlin, where he is thought to have shot dead the registered Polish driver of the truck, Lukasz Urban.

The spokeswoman added that the exact cause or time of death of Urban, who is due to be buried in Poland Friday, still could not be determined, but that he was killed "shortly before" the market attack.

Counter-terrorism officials have a detailed file on Amri, they knew he was tightly linked to Germany's radical Islamist network and had looked up instructions online on how to build pipe bombs, the newspaper reported.

The latest version of their file on Amri, which included information on his eight different identities, was updated on December 14 -- just five days before he allegedly killed 12 people in the Berlin attack.

Duesseldorf police deemed Amri a Salafist and radical fundamentalist, while Dortmund police had rated him a sympathiser of the Islamic State group.

Amri had been a regular guest at a religious school in a Dortmund apartment run by a notorious radical known as Boban S. that was believed to be a recruitment ground for jihadists.

Nevertheless, on an eight-point scale assessing an individual's potential danger, with "one" the highest threat, counter-terrorism experts rated him a "five" -- meaning they considered an attack possible but unlikely.

Amri's phone was recovered from the site of the truck attack.

It was additionally reported that the Tunisian failed asylum seeker fled to Amsterdam on a budget bus with a handgun in his backpack following the attack.
Anis Amri evaded cops for four days and travelled from Germany to Holland to France to Italy - despite being the world's most wanted man and carrying a firearm.

Italian news agency ANSA said he took a bus from the Flixbus company from Amsterdam Sloterdijk station to Lyon without being checked.

The 24-year-old was gunned down by police officers in Milan in the early hours of December 23.

Security forces are now trying to piece together whether the jihadist was trying to slip back to his native Tunisia via Italy, where he is believed to have been radicalised in jail.
The truck had ploughed into the crowd but swerved to the left after 60 to 80 metres (200 to 260 feet), crashing through a stall before coming to a halt.

Shortly after the rampage, authorities admitted that counter-terrorism services had been watching Amri, suspecting he may have been plotting an attack.

But surveillance was dropped in September, as police thought he was primarily as a small-time drug dealer.

Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered a sweeping review of the security apparatus after the attack, so that any necessary reforms could be agreed and implemented quickly.

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