Germany acknowledges mistakes 5 years after Berlin attack

VIENNA (AP) — Five years after a terrorist killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Germany’s government had not lived up to its duty to protect its citizens that day. He added that, in the years since, the attack has shown that mistakes were made by German officials. Steinmeier’s comments came at a Sunday evening commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the terror attack on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz. On Dec. 19, 2016, an Islamist terrorist plowed through a crowd of Christmas market-goers in a large truck, killing 12 people and injuring dozens more in the German capital. The attacker, a rejected asylum-seeker, was killed in a shootout days later in Italy.