Foreign-born terrorists behind majority of extremist attacks on western countries

Two thirds of Islamist extremist attacks on western targets were carried out by foreign-born terrorists last year despite government fears of an increased threat from homegrown radicals and returning fighters from Syria, according to a report published yesterday.

An analysis of 122 attacks committed in 2016 and 2017 highlighted the changing nature of modern terrorism with a slight decline in the number of plots connected to ISIS but a rise in attacks by far-right groups.

About 280 people were killed and nearly 2,000 injured in western democracies with the UK, US and France bearing the brunt of violence over the two years. The report by the Henry Jackson Society in London – Terrorism in the West: an age of

extremes – showed that 84 per cent of deaths were attributed to attacks by radical Muslims.

The role of overseas-born fighters in such attacks – up from 40 per cent in 2016 – was in part caused by failures of social integration, poor border security checks and failures of intelligence, according to the report’s author, Tom Wilson.

He highlighted the role of Moroccan-born terrorists in the 2017 attacks in Barcelona and nearby Cambrils that left 16 dead when pedestrians were mown down by a van driven by a member of the gang on the famous La Rambla thoroughfare. Many of those involved in the plot had lived in Spain for years.

In contrast, an Iraqi teenager who left a home-made bomb on a London Underground train last year had claimed asylum in the UK only the previous year when he said that he had been trained to kill by ISIS.

“A few came simply as terrorists but for the sole purposes of terrorism,” he said, highlighting a machete attack by an Egyptian national on a soldier outside the Louvre museum in Paris. The attacker had travelled to France on a tourist visa.

The data showed that the number of attacks by far-left and far-right terrorist groups almost reached the levels of Islamist-inspired groups in 2017.

The sharp rise in far-right activity – predominantly in the United States – appeared to correspond with online activity that sought to exploit issues such as the migrant crisis and terrorism.

“Given the volume and tone of this content, it is not surprising that we are now seeing an increase in violence,” Mr Wilson said.

About 280 people were killed and nearly 2,000 injured in western democracies in two years