New wave of terrorists might heading to Europe, officials warn

[Melech 9,900]

"BRUSSELS — A long-awaited offensive to dislodge the Islamic State from its stronghold city of Mosul is fueling fears of renewed terrorist attacks, as European counterterrorism officials say more fighters are returning home after waging jihad in Syria and Iraq. 

The security concerns are a major focus of European intelligence agencies as the Iraqi army and its partners press the assault on Mosul, which the Islamic State has used as a capital for planning and operations for more than two years. Attacks in Paris and Brussels in recent years have been conducted by locally born attackers who in some cases trained with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, then returned home.

Counterterrorism officials say it is too early to know whether the Mosul operation will spark a new wave of fighters coming back to Europe. But they say that when the Islamic State has been dealt battlefield blows in the past year, more of its adherents have returned home.

“Further military losses, further military pressure on them in the region, indeed might lead to an increased reflex response by the group in Europe,” said Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, the Pan-European policing agency that is coordinating efforts to combat the group inside European Union borders. Flows of returning fighters have “slightly increased” in recent months, he said. “Not yet in high numbers. Maybe Mosul and Raqqa could change that,” he said, referring to the Islamic State’s Syrian stronghold, which is the next major target after Mosul.

Between 4,000 and 5,000 European residents are estimated to have gone to Syria and Iraq to take part in the fight, which has raged since Arab Spring protests in Syria in 2011. A majority of the European fighters are said to be on the ground there, Wainwright said. About a third is estimated to have returned, with the remainder killed.

“ISIL are in the business of getting their people back into Europe in increasingly sophisticated ways,” he said, including paying organized crime groups for high-quality fake travel documents. In recent months, there has been “some pickup in the rate of return,” most noticeably to Britain, Sweden and Italy, he said.

E.U. counterterrorism officials have been warning for months that a string of setbacks for the Islamic State inside the territory it controls could create a threat as its supporters flee and as its leaders seek to prove their ongoing relevance. Repeated attacks on Paris last year, then the March attacks in Brussels, were the first warning sign of the group’s new focus on Europe. Then this summer, a spate of Islamic State-inspired attacks that began on Bastille Day in Nice, France, showed just how little resources were necessary to perpetrate large-scale killings.

“They’ve shown agility in the past. I suspect those who were not killed or captured will try to reinvent it,” de Kerchove said. One fear, he said, was that European citizens could take skills learned on the battlefield and apply them at home — a possibility that could encompass everything from chemical weapons to car bombs.

The complex threat has European officials carefully monitoring the offensive, which was launched Monday by Iraqi and Kurdish forces with Western air and ground support.

“Hundreds of thousands, if not a million” people might try to flee Mosul, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Thursday, adding that security forces need to check them all to make sure that Islamic State fighters are not escaping by blending into the crowds. He spoke after a conference in Paris devoted to the battle.

For now, the most immediate security concerns related to Mosul have to do with the protection of civilians in the city, which is said to have up to 1.5 million residents. The Islamic State has in the past used civilians as human shields, and any form of urban combat poses a challenge in separating civilian from fighter. If Islamic State combatants flee anywhere at all, the obvious first step is Raqqa, the group’s bastion in neighboring Syria. Anti-Islamic State forces have declared that their next target.

Iraqi officials have warned Western leaders that while Iraq and Syria might be on the front line, the threat is also potent in Europe.

“It is your enemy just as much as ours. It is a challenge for you as it is for us. And Daesh is trying to operate in your capitals, just as it is trying to operate in our capital,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari told the European Parliament on Wednesday, using another name for the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL.”"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/eu-authorities-brace-for-wave-ofislamic-statefightersafter-mosul-assault/2016/10/23/175c5ac8-960e-11e6-9cae-2a3574e296a6_story.html

This such a dilemma. People needing help and some terrorist will join the refugee storms. 

If we close our borders completely a humanity disaster will happen, so I guess I'm still in favor of taking refugees, but we need to be especially aware and need more controls at Europes borders. 

[Buddy 5,686]

Ok

We've known this since 2014 lol

[MarryTheKnight 2,181]

Be safe to everyone in Europe.

Honestly, ISIS & terrorism is such a huge issue and it seems like it will only get worse. This type of induced fear is what can elect leaders like Donald Trump. 

[Luc 4,776]

Nothing can be done about this at the border or at intelligence services. Closing the border would be ineffective and investing in intelligence services would take many years to actually improve the service (as you don't find new employees 1, 2, 3). They have to let ISIS 'win' a little bit while taking strategic points from them to secure oil for the Iraqi government and make sure they don't have a permanent place to stay. Let them die a really slow death instead of invading all parts of ISIS at once and letting all those terrorists come to Europe. Give them some hope to keep fighting so their main focus will stay at Syria and Iraq rather than Turkey, Europe, South-East-Asia, Caucasus and North America.

[Delusional 9,221]

What I don't get about Refugees is that meanwhile half of them back in their home country didn't even have a proper toilet, but still have a working IPHONE in their hands. 

 

Im not very against them, but this morning I was watching Lorraine and I saw how some men were huddled around a barely lit fire, with phones in their pockets! 

I hope ISIS is defeated, because I honestly don't get why they want to destroy the whole earth. 

We need to make a Skype Ball with Kim Jong Un and convince him to use that bomb on Isis 

[kvnrp 48,353]

2 minutes ago, VenusBitch said:

What I don't get about Refugees is that meanwhile half of them back in their home country didn't even have a proper toilet, but still have a working IPHONE in their hands.

You can get iPhones for cheap

iPhones aren't a status symbol anymore

Communicating with others is for most people worth a lot of money

[Melech 9,900]

5 minutes ago, VenusBitch said:

What I don't get about Refugees is that meanwhile half of them back in their home country didn't even have a proper toilet, but still have a working IPHONE in their hands. 

 

Im not very against them, but this morning I was watching Lorraine and I saw how some men were huddled around a barely lit fire, with phones in their pockets! 

I hope ISIS is defeated, because I honestly don't get why they want to destroy the whole earth. 

We need to make a Skype Ball with Kim Jong Un and convince him to use that bomb on Isis 

Imagine a war happens in your country and you need to flee. Would you let your phone home? 

Syria was not  a uncivilized place  

[Melech 9,900]

14 minutes ago, M83 said:

Ok

We've known this since 2014 lol

If you read the article you would know why this case is specific

[Whispering 18,865]

Aside from the fighters returning home, which is the biggest problem it seems, won't most of the citizens fleeing Mosul try to resettle temporarily  in other parts of Iraq? Won't some of them want to go back there after the city is retaken by the Iraqi Army?