German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats have proposed forming a committee to investigate the potential failings of security officials who monitored Anis Amri before he ploughed a truck through a Berlin Christmas market last month. The CDU is to inform its coalition ally, the Social Democrats (SPD), of the suggestion, sources told dpa on Saturday. Berlin police and intelligence officials have faced public scrutiny since December 19, when a dozen people were killed and more than 50 injured when Amri drove into the crowded Breitscheidplatz Christmas market in central Berlin. Amri evaded authorities in Germany and elsewhere for four days before being killed in a shootout with Italian police near Milan during a routine check. Speculations have risen that Amri's actions could have been stopped after it emerged that officials in Germany and other European countries had flagged the 24-year-old Tunisian as a potential security threat. CDU parliamentary leader Volker Kauder said the party may seek to establish an investigative committee to look into any failings of German and foreign officials in their dealings with Amri before his attack. News of the CDU proposal comes one day after daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported that victims of the attack could demand hundreds of millions of euros in compensation over deficient security arrangements at the Christmas market. German authorities had rejected Amri's asylum application but could not deport him for lack of the necessary documents from Tunisia. Known to authorities under 14 different names, the Tunisian national had been investigated for a possible terrorist plot and had links to Germany's radical-Islamist Salafist scene.
