EU police warn more ISIS attacks likely
PARIS— Europe’s top police agency issued a stark warning Monday: Islamic State extremists will keep attempting lethal attacks on soft targets in Europe as the militant group increasingly goes global.
Some 10 weeks after suicide bombers and gunmen killed 130 people in Paris, the Europol agency said, “there is every reason to expect that (Islamic State, Islamic State-inspired) terrorists or another religiously inspired terrorist group will undertake a terrorist attack somewhere in Europe again, but particularly in France, intended to cause mass casualties among the civilian population.”
The sobering conclusions reached by experts from the European Union’s chief agency for law enforcement co-operation in EU member states make clear that many, perhaps virtually all in Europe, may be at risk.
“Without reliable intelligence on the intentions, activities and contacts and travels of known terrorists it is nearly impossible to exactly predict when and where the next terrorist attack will take place and what form it will take,” the Europol report said.
Hours before the report was issued, a new video was released by the Islamic State group celebrating the killers who carried out the Nov. 13 attacks in the French capital — while also threatening fresh bloodshed.
The grisly recording ends with one militant holding a severed head, footage of British Prime Minister David Cameron giving a speech, and a warning that whoever stands with the unbelievers “will be a target for our swords.”
The 17-minute video, aired Sunday, shows the extent of the planning that went into the multiple attacks in Par- is, which French authorities have said from the beginning were planned in Syria. All nine men seen in the video died in the Paris attacks or their aftermath.
All but two of the attackers were from Belgium and France and spoke fluent French. The two others — identified by their noms de guerre as Iraqis — spoke in Arabic.
Seven of the militants, including a 20-year-old who was the youngest of the group, were shown standing behind bound captives, described as “apostates,” who were either beheaded or shot.
“Soon on the Champs-Élysées,” says Samy Amimour, who was raised in a Paris suburb, as he holds a dead captive’s head aloft.
The Nov. 13 attacks targeted a packed concert hall, a restaurant and cafe and a soccer match at the French national stadium. The video glorifying the Kalashnikov-wielding gunmen and suicide bombers responsible for that carnage was probably also meant as a recruitment tool.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Monday’s Europol report did not go markedly beyond previous warnings and was not intended to sow fear but “to look lucidly at reality.”
Gilles Kepel, a political scientist who recently published Terror in the Hexagon: The Genesis of French Jihad, said even if Islamic State extremists carry out new attacks in Europe, the video shows the group is increasingly desperate and likely on the wane — in part because of the indiscriminate killings in Paris.
“They emphasize their ability to be cruel, to kill all their opponents and to terrorize everyone. But what is very striking is that I do not believe that they will have a significant amount of new sympathizers after those videos,” he said.