THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch counterterrorism company on Tuesday lifted the nation’s risk alert to its second-highest stage, saying the potential of an assault within the nation is now “substantial.”
The announcement marked the primary time the risk stage has been so excessive for the reason that finish of 2019 and got here every week after the European Union’s house affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, warned that the continent faces a ” enormous threat of terrorist assaults ” over the Christmas vacation interval due to the fallout from the battle between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
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The Dutch Nationwide Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Safety additionally stated in its risk evaluation that “the violent battle in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Quran desecrations in varied European nations and requires assaults from terrorist organizations have elevated the risk from jihadism.”
The report cited latest assaults in close by European nations and arrests of terror suspects within the Netherlands and neighboring nations as a cause for elevating the risk stage. It added that “the risk from right-wing extremism and anti-institutional extremism stays unabated.”
The company stated that whereas the raised risk evaluation does not mandate particular actions to ramp up safety, it “permits safety companions (such because the police, municipalities and ministries) to take measures to fight the risk.”
Assaults have occurred lately in neighboring France and Belgium.
Earlier this month, a 23-year-old German-Filipino vacationer was fatally stabbed close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The person accused of the assault is beneath investigation on prices of homicide and tried homicide in reference to a terrorist group. He had been beneath surveillance for suspected Islamic radicalization, and had been convicted and served jail time for a deliberate assault that by no means befell.
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In October, authorities in Brussels shot and killed a Tunisian nationwide hours after they are saying he shot three Swedish soccer followers, killing two of them, and posted a video on-line wherein he claimed credit score for the assault and stated the Quran was “a pink line for which he is able to sacrifice himself.”
Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest stage in August after a string of public desecrations of the Quran sparked indignant demonstrations throughout Muslim nations and threats from militant teams.
