The deadly attack carried out by the terrorist group Isis, also known as Islamic State or Daeshto the Crocus Concert Hall in Moscow and which left 139 fatalities last weekend, it was not the first attempt. Before, without success, they had tried to execute it in other European cities.
Just weeks ago, at the beginning of March, the Belgian police arrested four young people whom they accused in court of belonging to Isis and of preparing, precisely, an attack against a concert hall in Brussels, the 'Orangerie', of the 'Botanique' center, a concert venue with a capacity of 650 people.
This is why both European governments and officials dedicated to security in the common institutions of the European Union and NATOare once again focusing their attention on the insurgent paramilitary group after a few years with hardly any jihadist attacks on the old continent.
Countries like France and Italy raised their alert level to the maximum. In fact, Paris took more than 8,000 soldiers to the streets to reinforce the work of the police and gendarmerie divisions. In that sense, the military offloads surveillance at transport hubs or energy plants to the police, for example.
And, after the attack in Moscow, the European security services consider that this was only the first of a campaign of attacks that the Islamic State throughout Europe.
What has happened to make Europe alert against Isis?
In addition to the arrest of those four young people in Belgium at the beginning of March, the German intelligence services arrested two Isis sympathizers last week on Friday, accusing them of planning an attack against the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm.
In July 2023 it was in Germany and the Netherlands where new men suspected of belonging to Isis fell and, in April of that same year, the Swedish police arrested five men who, although in principle they would not be members of the Islamic State, yes they would have been planning attacks following guidelines from the jihadist group. Added to this are arrests of suspects in Italy, United Kingdom and Spain.
The terrorist network is woven again in Europe
These movements denote that the Isis networks in Europe, which were practically dismantled after the major attacks in Paris and Brussels In 2015 and 2016 (partly because many terrorists blew themselves up in these attacks, were arrested or died in confrontations with agents), they once again loomed large and threatened the security of Europeans.
The Islamic State had disappeared from the media and the European political agenda although the group had not disappeared. After his defeat in Syria and Iraqwhere it maintained a certain presence, had also found refuge in Central Asian countries, mainly in Afghanistan.
What change in the Islamic State to make it a threat again?
A major change in Isis's renewed threat to Russia and the rest of Europe is the origin of its members.
In 2015 and 2016 there were essentially two groups of men: young Muslims born in European cities such as Brussels, Paris, London or Amsterdam; and those radicalized in Europe who were newly arrived from the wars in Syria and Iraq through migrant smuggling networks that crossed Turkey, Greece and the Balkans to central Europe.
Now, the majority, like those detained in Brussels and those who attacked in Moscow, are from another origin. The majority of its current militants are nationals of Central Asian countries, from Afghanistan to Azerbaijan passing through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Most of them first took up arms in Syria, Iraq or until 2021 in Afghanistan. After that they have been refugees in an area known as Khorasan (which includes territories of Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and other neighboring countries), hence the group in some reports appears as Isis-K (they add the 'K' for its origin). However, this group is not new, as it was founded just months after Isis in Syria.
Its militants are mostly in search and capture in their countries, to which they cannot return, so for the European security agencies they are basically “mercenaries insensitive to suffering” after years of a life of wars and terrorism living poorly in terrorist camps, without more roots or families.
And for the same reason, the group is, believe the European sources consulted after the Moscow attack, seeking to demonstrate that it is still alive and that it can attack large targets throughout Europe and not only in Russia, where despite the rhetoric of the Vladimir government In recent months, Putin's services have proven to be less efficient than the European ones when it comes to detecting and arresting these terrorist cells.
A Scandinavian diplomat told EL TIEMPO that, most likely, Isis “is going to try to attack different European cities as they have already tried in recent months, although without success.” ““Sweden, Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands are the most threatened countries, but if they can attack others, they will.”he added.
These sources assure that although Isis is no longer the organization it was a decade ago, when it controlled an area of Iraq and Syria covering hundreds of thousands of square kilometers and created a proto-State, it remains a very worrying threat.
IDAFE MARTIN PÉREZ
FOR THE TIME
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