Homegrown jihadis real threat in US, Europe

Returning fighters from the vanquished Islamic State group pose a grave danger to Europe and the United States, but the primary extremist threat comes from people living and radicalised inside their country, US terror experts say.

Even if they have no battleground experience, those who decide to undertake solo attacks, like the two recently in New York, in the name of the Islamic State group or Al- Qaeda are almost impossible to detect in advance.

“In France, the US, or elsewhere, there certainly won’t be any more large attacks planned from abroad like those of November 13, 2015 in Paris,” said Marc Sageman, a former CIA agent and terror expert, referring to the multipronged ISIS operation that left 130 dead.

“Ever since then, attackers here or in Europe have not been guided by ISIS but acted on their own, imagining themselves to be soldiers of an imagined Islamic community which they want to defend or avenge.”

Neither Akayed Ullah, the Bangladeshi immigrant who tried to blow up a New York subway station last week, mainly wounding himself, nor Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek who mowed down people on a New York bike path on October 31, killing 8, had any evident contact with Islamic State jihadists aside from watching their propaganda videos.

Experts say that kind of self- radicalised attacker, completely unknown to authorities, is the main threat countries face today.