Ankara, Berlin, Zurich - three linked terrorist attacks?

Ankara, Berlin, Zurich - three linked terrorist attacks?

The Russian Foreign Ministry has unambiguously assessed that this was a terrorist act.

In Berlin, a truck driver drove into a Christmas market killing at least 12 persons and injured around 50, while in Zurich at least three people were wounded in a shooting in an Islamic center. The attacker was found dead on Tuesday.

Although at first cautious to refer to the Berlin killings as terrorism, the police in Germany have since said that the truck was deliberately driven into a group of people, and that the incident is a possible terrorist attack.

The media in Germany, meanwhile, identified the driver as a Pakistani man who arrived in their country via the Balkan migrant route. But later in the day, the German police said that they had arrested the wrong man and that the perpetrator was still at large.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made her first statement regarding the attack on Tuesday morning, saying that it "must be viewed as a terrorist attack" - and that it would make the incident "particularly repugnant" if the killer indeed came to Germany as a refugee.

The newly elected President of the United States Donald Trump has no doubt that these are three related terrorist attacks. In a statement, he condemned the incidents and blamed Islamic terrorists.

"Today there were terror attacks in Turkey, Switzerland and Germany - and it is only getting worse. The civilized world must change thinking!," Trump wrote on Twitter. EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn has also condemned the attacks on Twitter.

"I strongly condemn the heinous attacks in Ankara, Berlin, Zurich. Violence and hate will not win!," he wrote.

In the wake of the assassination in Ankara, Turkey and Russia said that they will strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism, while the presidents of the two countries, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, agreed that the aim of the attack was to undermine Russia-Turkey relations, but also attempt to delay peace talks on Syria's future between Iran, Russia and Turkey, which will be held today in Moscow.

EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on behalf of the European Union condemned the attack, while members of the UN Security Council once again stressed the need to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorist attacks.