Berlin CSD attack suspect Abdul B. contacted suspected IS members during May 2025 trip to Lebanon

According to the public prosecutor's office, the attacker Abdul B. traveled to Lebanon in May of last year. Did the terrorist group Islamic State recruit him there?

29.7.2026 | 7:13 AM

Had arrested Abdul B.: Lebanese military in Beirut (archive photo) — Photo: Marwan Tahtah/getty images

By Julia Neumann, from Beirut

Following the violent attack on the Berlin CSD, questions have emerged regarding the role Lebanon may have played in the radicalization of the suspect.

The German-Lebanese Abdul B. rammed a transporter into the celebrating crowd on Saturday, killing one woman and injuring 29 others. He sympathized with the Islamic State (IS), a Sunni terrorist organization also known as "Daesh." Lebanon, where the Shiite Hezbollah primarily operates, is not typically associated with Sunni terror groups like IS.

However, IS is also active in Lebanon. Only recently, 32-year-old H. R. was uncovered. The Syrian had been living inconspicuously in an apartment in the Lebanese capital Beirut. From there, as an "IS emir," he coordinated communication networks for the radical Islamist group Daesh. He was a high-ranking regional commander planning attacks in Syria.

Lebanon's intelligence service became aware of him. On June 30, Lebanese security forces stormed his apartment and arrested him. Authorities confiscated his computer, on which they found plans for an attack on a Syrian military facility in Dara'a, southern Syria.

Whether H. R. and the Berlin attacker Abdul B. ever met is unclear, but possible. According to the Berlin public prosecutor's office, B. contacted several people he believed to be Daesh members. On July 24, 2025, he was arrested in Lebanon, brought before a military court, and imprisoned for three months.

He was convicted, among other things, of inciting religious and sectarian conflicts. After his release, Abdul B. traveled back to Germany on November 17, 2025. At Berlin airport, the Berlin General Prosecutor's Office had him arrested due to an arrest warrant from the Tiergarten District Court. He remained in pre-trial detention until the verdict.

In response to a taz inquiry, the Lebanese military stated it had nothing to say about the case. The responsible military court keeps files under seal and conducts hearings behind closed doors. Judges are usually former military personnel. Human rights organizations criticize these non-transparent procedures.

What Is a Shiite Doing with the Sunni IS?

Although his parents are of Lebanese descent, Lebanon does not seem relevant to B.'s radicalization for that reason alone, but rather as a transit country on the way to the IS in Syria. According to Der Spiegel, the father said the family — Muslims from Lebanon — is Shiite-influenced. Daesh, however, is a Sunni Salafist group that has opposed Shiites in Lebanon since its founding, most notably with attacks in 2014 in South Beirut, where the Shiite Hezbollah is the strongest political force.

After the murder of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon in September 2024, an IS magazine stated that Sunnis should not mourn Shiites. Devout Sunnis should prepare for a kind of final battle with Shiites, according to the propaganda.

According to Abdul B.'s father, "brainwashing" drove his son to the terrorist group. Experts counter this: It is not psychopaths or "brainwashed" individuals who join Daesh, "but rather completely normal young people in social upheaval, on the fringes of society, or in an identity crisis," as American psychiatrist Omar Sultan Haque wrote. During Daesh's peak, the Harvard researcher analyzed why people from wealthy Western countries are attracted to the radical group. Lonely, adolescent outsiders are particularly at risk.

According to Issam al-Absi, a security expert in Lebanon, Daesh members in Lebanon are subordinate to the group's leadership in Syria. The leadership in Syria is responsible for planning.