To Read more: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2015/572806/EPRS_BRI(2015)572806_EN.pdf
Europe/Da’esh – (From the Institute of War 4 Dec 15) ISIS is executing a campaign to terrorize and polarize Europe. The organization has inspired, resourced, and directed attempted and successful attacks in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Turkey since January 2014. ISIS aims to punish countries acting against it in Iraq and Syria. It also seeks to polarize the West by inspiring state and social backlash against European Muslim communities. ISIS believes increased cultural strife will destabilize Europe and encourage Muslims to join it in Iraq and Syria. ISIS maintains an extensive support network across Europe to advance this polarization campaign. ISIS benefits from historic recruitment and attack cells developed by al-Qaeda (AQ) and by ISIS's predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). ISIS has also developed its own network of recruiters who have helped thousands of Europeans travel to fight with ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Finally, ISIS has inspired a widespread base of digital support through its media outreach. ISIS frequently releases recruitment videos targeted at specific European nationalities. The foreign fighters in these videos echo the September 2014 call of ISIS's spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani to "kill any disbeliever, whether he be French, American, or from any of their allies." ISIS's supporters have attempted or executed at least nineteen inspired attacks since January 2014 as a result of this encouragement. The graphic below depicts all attacks inspired or coordinated by ISIS in Europe from January 2014 to December 4, 2015. It also marks locations where ISIS-linked individuals have been arrested between those dates. Locations with more than two arrest events are marked with a number and a single icon. The graphic additionally reflects which countries have increased national threat levels in the wake of the Paris attacks, and shows where ISIS has directed public threats or recruitment calls. Individuals inspired by and responsive to ISIS are active across Europe, particularly in Western countries with high populations of foreign fighters. This activity contrasts with ISIS-linked arrests and attacks in Turkey, which reflect spill-over from ISIS's campaigns in Iraq and Syria rather than ISIS's campaign to attack the West. ISIS will likely expand its efforts to direct and resource sophisticated terror attacks in Europe. ISIS used its high-ranking Belgian-Moroccan military commander Abdelhamid Abouaad to coordinate multiple attack attempts in Belgium and France. ISIS may send similarly skilled individuals back to plan terror attacks there or in other historic European jihadist systems, including Spain and Morocco, Italy and the Balkans, or the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden. Interconnected human networks in each of these systems may capitalize on inadequate intelligence sharing across European borders in order to plan and conduct attacks. ISIS will also continue to use its global network to inspire and possibly resource terror attacks in other Western countries, including the United States. Reports that a shooter in San Bernadino pledged allegiance to ISIS before or during an attack on December 2 highlight this threat.
Belgium – Belgium on the 4 Dec 15 said it was hunting for two unidentified terror suspects it said are "armed and dangerous" and who used false ID papers to help Salah Abdeslam, wanted over the Paris attacks claimed by ISIL. The pair, who used fake Belgian identity cards with the names Samir Bouzid and Soufiane Kayal, are thought to have aided Abdeslam to travel to Hungary in September. "The Federal Prosecutor's Office and the investigating judge wish to appeal to the public again to look out for two new suspects the investigators are actively searching for," the prosecutors said in a statement. They said Abdeslam, who was in Paris at the time of the attacks that killed 130 and whose brother blew himself up, travelled twice to Budapest in September using a rental car. On the 9 Sep 15 he was subject to a control at the Austrian-Hungarian border in a Mercedes in the company of the two other men. Police have issued images from cards and photographs of the suspects, seemingly taken from closed circuit television footage. Federal prosecutors said the same false identity of Soufiane Kayal was used to rent a house in the Belgian town of Auvelais that was searched on the 26 Nov 15. The other false identity card, for Samir Bouzid, was used four days after the attacks to transfer 750 Euros at a Western Union office in Brussels to Hasna Aitboulahcen, who died in a police assault in St Denis on the 18 Nov 15. Abaaoud and a still unidentified third person were also killed in the raid. On the 3 Dec 15 the federal prosecutor said Belgium was holding two suspects on suspicion of participating in terrorist activities, bringing the number of people it has charged over links to the Paris attacks to eight. Samir Z., a French national born in 1995, had been detained at Brussels airport on the 29 Nov 15 as he was boarding a plane bound for Morocco, said the prosecutor. He is suspected of having attempted to go to Syria at least twice in 2015 and is considered to be part of the entourage of Bilal Hadfi, one of the Paris suicide bombers who had been living in Belgium. Pierre N., a Belgian national born in 1987, was also detained during a search at his home in the Brussels district of Molenbeek on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, France's government published a guide on the 4 Dec 15 on how to survive a terrorist attack, as the prime minister warned that people must learn to live with the threat. Advice in cartoon-strip form, to appear on posters in public places like train stations and available online, recommends three key responses: flee, hide and raise the alarm. "There's a lasting threat we are going to have to learn to live with," Manuel Valls, the French prime minister said. The guide offers basic advice to first of all flee the scene of danger to a safer place, turning off lights and pushing a sofa behind the door of a hideout room and then calling emergency services. It recommended cutting off ringtones and vibration-alerts on mobile phones for those in hiding, to avoid alerting attackers.
France – France extended emergency laws from 12 days to three months amid increased security threats following the Paris attacks it was reported on the 3 Dec 15. France is likely to close up to 160 mosques in the coming months as part of a nationwide police operation under the state of emergency which allows places of worship that promote radical views to be shut down, one of the country's chief imams has said. Following news that three mosques have already been closed since the 13 Nov 15 attacks on the capital, Hassan El Alaoui, who is in charge of nominating regional and local Muslim imams and mediating between the imams and prison officials, said on the 2 Dec 15 that more were set to be shut. "According to official figures and our discussions with the interior ministry, between 100 and 160 more mosques will be closed because they are run illegally without proper licenses, they preach hatred, or use takfiri speech," he said. Takfiris are classified as Muslims who accuse others of the same faith of apostasy, an act which has become a sectarian slur. "This kind of speech shouldn't even be allowed in Islamic countries, let alone secure countries like France," El Alaoui, who became the first Muslim prison chaplain-general in 2005, said. The recent mosque closures, he added, were made under "a legal act that the authorities have" and must have happened because "of some illegal things that they found". The imam also rejected those suspected of carrying out the suicide bomb and gun attacks, which left 130 people dead, as "terrorists". "Those terrorists are a bunch of thieves and drug dealers that wore religious clothing," he said. "The whole issue is not about Muslims, but about terrorists. It's an issue of security for everyone." There are a total of 2,600 mosques in France, El Alaoui said. He said that he has joined the Islamic prayer in several French cities "and been shocked of what I've heard". "There was a world view [being preached] that was quite worrisome. I'm talking about the politicisation of Islam. I've heard some speeches that tend to promote the notion among Muslims present that Islamophobia is organised by the French state, that somehow non-Muslim French people are against the Muslim minority." France's extended emergency rule has seen a surge in arrests, house arrests and raids on homes and private property in the wake of the Paris attacks - including at mosques and Muslim-owned businesses - and has raised alarm among rights organisations that the law could curb civil liberties. Meanwhile, there are fears that France's Muslim minority, the largest in any European country, is facing increased persecution as some fail to differentiate between Muslims and those who join or support armed groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, which claimed responsibility for the deadly violence on November 13. Rising Islamophobia in the wake of the attacks, he added, was "unsurprising", though not "understandable". "The link between people committing barbaric acts throughout the world is that they think of themselves as Muslim. As long as Muslims refuse to look at that honestly...I think it's not very serious intellectually and dubious morally and it's shocking this point is going to keep on coming."
France – On the 7 Dec 15 it was reported that Kalashnikov ammunition and ISIS propaganda videos were seized in raids following the closure of a mosque in the Paris suburbs, French authorities said. The prayer hall in Lagny-sur-Marne, around 30km east of the capital, was shut down last Wednesday (92 Dec 15) following a large-scale police operation. Associated with the traditionalist Salafist branch of Islam, it is the third mosque in France to be closed after the coordinated extremist attacks on Paris on November 13. The prefect - the highest representative of the state - in the Seine-and-Marne department said on Sunday “7.62mm ammunition for a Kalashnikov rifle and propaganda videos” for ISIS had been found in raids linked to the closure of the prayer hall. The locations of the raids were not given. A revolver and extremist documents were also found during searches at the homes of the mosque leaders, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said previously. A total of 22 travel bans and nine house arrests for “radicalized individuals” have been issued as a result of the operation. Police also found recordings of religious chants “glorifying the martyrs of jihad linked to the terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra”, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, the prefecture added. The recordings were found among a wealth of teaching material for youngsters in an undeclared madrassa, or religious school. “No request was made to open a private school,” the prefecture said in its statement. Mohammed Ramdane, president of the local Muslim association in Lagny, had criticized the closure of the prayer hall on Wednesday, saying: “Nothing has been found. Nothing is hidden, we don’t hide anything.”
France/Europe – France is urging its European Union partners to speed up efforts to cut off funds to extremists groups. French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on the 8 Dec 15 that “every country is under threat of terrorism, and every country has to do what is needed to fight terror financing.” Sapin and his EU counterparts are set to debate in Brussels ways to better track financial transfers, control prepaid bank cards, freeze assets and limit movements of cash and precious metals. The EU’s executive Commission will set out a timetable for adopting key measures. The process has taken on new urgency in the wake of last month’s Paris attacks. Sapin warned that “the dates for adopting these measures are far away. Terrorists are there, so we must act more quickly.”
France – A 23-year-old man from the eastern French city of Strasbourg has been identified as the third armed man involved in the attack on Paris' Bataclan music hall, police sources said on the 9 Dec 15. Foued Mohamed Aggad had travelled to Syria with his brother and a group of friends at the end of 2013, a source close to the investigation said. In an interview with BFM TV in Paris Manuel Valls, France's prime minister, confirmed the report, as he pledged that France would carry out more arrests. "What is important is that the investigation is progressing, that the accomplices are found out, that arrests happen," he said. Aggad was reportedly identified using DNA samples provided by his mother. The two other attackers involved in the massacre of 90 concert-goers at the Bataclan - Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29, and 28-year-old former Paris bus driver Samy Amimour - had also been in Syria. According to French news reports, Aggad was one of the two attackers, who blew themselves up with suicide belts packed with explosives after the killing spree, the worst of the 13 Nov 15 Paris attacks. The third was shot by police who stormed the venue with hundreds of people still inside. Most of the group of six men from Strasbourg who went to Syria with Aggad were arrested in the Meinau area of the city on their return in May last year and are all in custody on terrorism charges. But Aggad stayed on in Syria, the source said. The identification of Aggad was significant as it allows police to establish the identities of other suspects. "The more identities that they can find, the more that the police can start to draw a broader net to try to establish the connection," she said. But in terms of catching the other suspects, that might take some time. At least one suspect, Salah Abdelsalam, has reportedly fled back to Syria. Investigators believe two brothers from the group of attackers, Mourad and Yassine Boudjellal, were killed fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. When questioned on their return, the men claimed that they had been horrified by what they had witnessed in Syria and had started to dribble back to France from Feb 14. They claimed to have gone to Syria for humanitarian work but prosecutors believe they were part of ISIL, which claimed responsibility for the carnage in Paris. Police suspect the Strasbourg group had been recruited by Mourad Fares, 31, who was known to French intelligence for recruiting fighters through social media and the internet. Fares - who Bernard Cazeneuve, France's interior minister, has described as a "particularly dangerous individual" - was arrested in Aug 14 in Turkey before being handed over to the French authorities. Cazeneuve said he was an important link between various "jihadist terrorist movements", including ISIL and al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front.
France/Morocco – The hunt for Europe’s most wanted man has spread to North Africa after it emerged that Moroccan authorities issued an arrest warrant for Salah Abdeslam, the only alleged attacker known to have escaped alive after the massacre in Paris a month ago reports said on the 11 Dec 15. Belgian-born French national Abdeslam fled Paris after allegedly dropping off three suicide bombers outside the national stadium on the night of the coordinated attacks that left 130 dead and more than 300 wounded. The Moroccan warrant for the 26-year-old’s arrest was issued late last month, it has emerged. A Moroccan security source said it was not clear whether Abdeslam had fled to Morocco or another North African state.
Germany/Da’esh – Germany's lower house of parliament on the 4 Dec 15 approved government plans to join the military campaign against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria. Of the 598 politicians who took part in the vote, 445 voted for, 146 against and seven abstained. The mission will include sending six Tornado reconnaissance jets, a frigate to help protect the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, refuelling aircraft and up to 1,200 military personnel. Germany will not join countries like Britain, France, the United States and Russia in conducting air strikes. The green light for the mission that could become Germany's biggest deployment abroad comes three weeks after jihadists killed 130 people in Paris. The atrocities prompted France to invoke a clause requiring EU states to provide military assistance to wipe out ISIL in Iraq and Syria. In Germany, where there has traditionally been reluctance to engage in military missions abroad, the government's decision to take direct action in Syria has been largely met with support. An opinion poll in Die Welt newspaper Friday showed broad public backing of 58 per cent of people surveyed in favour of the military deployment while 37 per cent were against. The support came despite a large majority of 63 per cent believing that the risk of a terror attack on German soil will rise as a result of Bundeswehr involvement in Syria.
Switzerland/Da’esh – Two suspected Syrians were arrested in Geneva on suspicion of transporting 'explosives and toxic gases' as part of a probe into a terror threat, it was reported on the 12 Dec 15. Switzerland's attorney general said the men were also suspected of making and hiding the dangerous materials. But Geneva prosecutor Olivier Jornot said only traces of explosives were found in the car, and did not elaborate on claims about potential chemical weapons. More arrests are expected to be made in the future amid heightened security on Switzerland's border with France. Mr Jornot said the two men, who spoke Arabic and had valid Syrian passports, had just arrived in Geneva. They were subjected to extra checks because of their 'behaviour and their nationality', he added. He also claimed the traces of explosives found in the car may not have been linked to the pair, who had only recently acquired the car. Officials have opened criminal proceedings against the men under a law which bans groups such as al Qaeda and ISIS. The men have been handed over to Swiss federal police despite denying criminal intent. The two men are accused of the 'manufacture, concealment and transport of explosives and toxic gases', the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement. Both men were arrested on the road outside Cologny, a municipality in the canton of Geneva. The city has remained on high alert due to an increased jihadist threat in Switzerland, with added security personnel making careful chats on vehicles. Geneva's public prosecutor has announced a news conference for later with no confirmation yet of the chemicals found in the car. The Geneva region raised its alert level to three on a five-point scale on the 10 Dec 15 following fears of a potential terror attack. Armed police were deployed at sensitive locations across the city, which is home to the UN's European headquarters. Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga revealed that a 'foreign authority' had handed over intelligence information to Swiss intelligence about 'a potential IS cell in the Geneva area'. The news comes after it was revealed that Geneva police were searching for four suspects in relation to the deadly Paris attacks on the 13 Nov 15. Mr Jornot said there is no indication these four suspects are still in Switzerland. He also said no link has been established between the quartet on the run and the arrest of the two recent terror suspects. Swiss intelligence service has been working closely with other US intelligence agencies in a bid to hunt down and prevent a possible terror attack in Switzerland. Geneva is almost entirely enclosed by France.
ISIS'S PLANS FOR CHEMICAL WARFARE
ISIS has recruited experts with chemistry, physics and computer science degrees to wage war with weapons of mass destruction against the West, a shocking European Parliament report has claimed. (See above) The terror organisation, according to the briefing document, 'may be planning to try to use internationally banned weapons of mass destruction in future attacks'. The document, which was compiled in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on Paris claimed that ISIS has already smuggled WMD material into Europe. Experts fear that ISIS will be able to exploit a failure of EU governments to share information on possible terrorists. Already, British police forces have been conducting exercises on how to deal with various types of terrorist attack. But the EU report claims that government should 'consider publicly addressing the possibility of terrorist attack using chemical, biological, radiological or even nuclear materials'. The report, ISIL/Da'esh and 'non-conventional' weapons of terror warns: 'At present, European citizens are not seriously contemplating the possibility that extremist groups might use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) materials during attacks in Europe. Under these circumstances, the impact of such an attack, should it occur, would be even more destabilising.' Rob Wainwright, head of Europol said after the attacks on Paris: 'We are dealing with a very serious, well-resourced, determined international terrorist organisation that is now active on the streets of Europe. 'This represents the most serious terrorist threat faced in Europe for 10 years.' Mr Wainwright warned that ISIS had serious capabilities in terms of resources and manpower.'
United Kingdom – One of the terrorists behind the Paris attacks visited two British cities in the run up to the outrage which killed 130 people last month, it has been claimed on the 4 Dec 15. Counter-terrorism officials have reportedly established that the man, who has not been publicly identified, travelled to the UK earlier this year. They also found that a string of phone calls were made by one or more of the Islamic State-inspired gunmen in the run up to the attack. The man is thought to have slipped briefly into the UK and travelled to London, Birmingham and Kent, where he is understood to have met individuals suspected of being capable of plotting or assisting terrorist activity in Britain. It is not known how he entered Britain, but the people he visited are reportedly under investigation by MI5, the security service, and police counter-terrorism officers. According to western intelligence officials a number of people suspected of having connections to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Islamic State militant and alleged ringleader of the Nov 13 attacks, are based in Britain. The people were said to be of Moroccan origin and based in the Birmingham area, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal. Marcus Beale, the Assistant Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, said on Saturday: “ The West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit is working hand-in-hand with counter terrorism colleagues in London, the national CT network and security services to provide support to the French and Belgian investigations and of course to address any associated terrorism threat to the UK." The man who travelled to Britain from the Continent was able to do so despite increased vigilance as a result of the terrorism threat level being at ”severe”, meaning the prospect of an attack is likely. Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian of Moroccan descent, had previously boasted of his ability to travel into Europe from Syria and across the continent with ease – despite being named on European and international arrest warrants. He died following a siege of a flat in the St Denis suburb of Paris five days after the attacks on several restaurants, the Bataclan concert hall and the Stade de France. A source said of the telephone calls to Birmingham: “They were made shortly before the Paris attacks. British police are urgently investigating whether anyone in the UK was involved in those atrocities and also whether there is a linked terror cell based here.” A number of Islamist extremists have been linked to Birmingham and the surrounding region in recent years. They include former Birmingham resident Rabah Tahari, who is of Algerian origin and was named in Parliament last year as the leader of Kateeba al-Kawthar, a group fighting in Syria.
A man was being held in custody on the 6 Dec 15 after three people were stabbed at a London Underground train station in an attack police were treating as a "terrorist incident". Eyewitnesses had said the lone suspect spoke of Syria and had "apparently shouted 'this is for Syria'," though no witnesses were quoted. Police could not confirm this and it is not evident from video footage circulating online. The attack Saturday came at the end of a week in which the British parliament voted to extend air strikes on the Islamic State jihadist group (ISIS) from Iraq into Syria. London police said one man sustained serious knife injuries in the east London attack, but they were not thought to be life-threatening, while two others sustained minor injuries. Britain's Counter-Terrorism Command is investigating. "We are treating this as a terrorist incident," CTC leader Commander Richard Walton said in a statement. Amateur footage shows officers shouting "Drop the knife!" and firing Taser electric stun guns, one of which connects. A 29-year-old suspect (Muhaydin Mire) was charged with attempted murder on the 7 Dec 15. 361 COMMENT: Although some are careful when attempting to classify this attack as a terrorist incident let us not forget that these acts have been occurring in Israel by Palestinians for some time now. Let us also not forget the terrorist attack on Fusilier Lee Rigby where he was first knocked down by a moving vehicle before being murdered by two men with knives. Terrorist organisations such as Da’esh and al-Qaeda have been calling for these types of attacks not only on-line but in their respective periodical magazines. Sadly this may become a trend rather than a one off. Time will tell. The attack will probably not come from someone who has been radicalised by a sympathiser. No doubt a group will claim this as one of their own. With the attack in the United States and this they will serve the terrorist groups well in propaganda purposes. COMMENT ENDS
United Kingdom – According to the U.K. Home Office quarterly bulletin, 315 terror suspects – a record — have been arrested in the United Kingdom in the past year, with a sharp increases in arrests of women and teenagers it was reported on the 10 Dec 15. In the twelve months to September, the number of women arrested for terrorism-related offenses more than doubled, from 21 to 50. The number of under-18s detained was 15 – the highest ever level. The Daily Mail reports that the 31 percent rise in the number of terrorism-related suspects arrested is a reflection of the determined effort by the police and security services to address the ISIS threat and stem the flow of Britons to, and from, Syria. The Home Office notes that women now account for 16 percent of all terrorism-related arrests. The bulletin highlights that fact that normally women or girls make up only 8 percent of those arrested, and that one in five of all arrests of female terror suspects in Britain since the 9/11 attacks fourteen years ago have happened in the last year. “The majority of the increase in the number of women getting arrested has been linked to international-related terrorism,” the Home Office bulletin said. The detailed figures offered in the report show that the increased number of those arrested for terrorism-related offenses included a 41 percent increase in those who considered themselves Asian and a 25 percent increase in those who considered themselves white. The proportion of terror suspects who are British has risen to 79 percent of those arrested this year, compared with 56 percent in 2001, when the statistics were first collected. The Home Office figures for the twelve months to September 2015 show that nearly 40 percent (124) of those arrested have been charged; 22 percent (68) were released on bail; and 37 percent (115) were released without charge. The 37 percent of those arrested then released without charge is an increase over the previous year’s 31 percent, but below the 53 percent who were arrested then released in 2013. The Home Office said that the 31 percent increase in the number of terrorism-related suspects arrested was driven by a large number of arrests in two quarters: October to December 2014 and April to June 2015. “The most recent quarter saw a fall in the number of arrests to around half that of the quarter before (94 down to 48),” the report said. The bulletin noted that the wide-ranging nature of terrorism investigations which the police and the security services undertake typically leads to fluctuations in the number of arrests from one quarter to the next: “Furthermore, individual investigations involving multiple suspects are likely to cause an increase in the figures more than investigations involving small numbers of suspects,” the bulletin adds. The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said 289 people were detained on suspicion of terrorism-related offenses in 2014, about twenty fewer than the previous twelve months, and that 102 of them were charged. RUSI added that the proportion of arrests leading to charges was “substantially lower” for terrorism-related offenses than for criminal offenses generally, at 35 percent compared with 58 percent. A spokesman for the Home Office said: “The number of arrests is often quoted as an illustration of the scale of the threat. However, it more accurately demonstrates the scale of police activity in countering it. Charge or conviction data would be a better measure of the level of confirmed terrorist activity.” The Home Office bulletin says, however, that it is difficult to compare charge rates on a like-for-like basis until legal procedures for all the cases within a given time period have been completed.
United Kingdom/Libya/Da’esh – The British Government is now 'extremely concerned' by the rise of Da’esh, in Libya and is considering intervening it was reported in a British newspaper on the 12 Dec 15. There are fears Libya could be used as a gateway to Europe due to the country sharing the Mediterranean Sea with the continent. ISIS released a video recently showing a mass beheading of 21 Egyptian Christian guest workers. The video had footage of a militant declaring: "We will conquer Rome, by Allah's permission." The ISIS propagandist describes Libya, which is 300 miles from the European mainland as having 'immense potential' for ISIS. He added Libya had plenty of weapons from the Libyan civil war. The Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence have both said they are worried about the rise of extremist groups in the region and they could target Europe next. Manuel Valls, the French prime minister called for international events to stop ISIS extending into the north African country. He said: "We are at war. We have an enemy that we must fight and crush in Syria, in Iraq and soon in Libya, too." France has sent spy planes over Libya to assess the threat posed by the country. The UN thinks that 2,000 to 3,000 fighters are in Libya and ISIS’ control of the Mediterranean coastline gives jihadists a venue for training camps on the border of Europe and free access to target Western ships at sea. Italy estimates over 200,000 people could make the crossing from Libya to Sicily. Support for the group in Libya is growing, since September the town of Derna has been run according to the group's strict Shariah law. Last Monday (7 Dec 15) the former head of the M16, Sir John Sawers, said Britain should debate whether to put troops on the ground there to stop the country “being exploited by fanatics”. Nasser Kamel, Egypt's ambassador to London, warned that Britain should brace itself for 'boats full of terrorists' unless action was taken in Libya. In Feb 15 there were reports that jihadists hoped to use Libya as a 'gateway' to wage war across southern Europe. Letters written by the group's supporters revealed that the jihadists hoped to have militants sailing across the Mediterranean posing as migrants.
United Kingdom – Britain's MPs have been told to increase security in their homes and constituencies amid fears they and their staff could be singled out for an attack by Islamic State militants it was reported on the 13 Dec 15. Islamic State (ISIS) has a political assassination unit aimed at government officials and the Syrian bombing campaign has moved the spotlight on to the UK now, according to a British newspaper. With 300 suspected Islamist terrorists returning to the UK and now free on the streets, security chiefs have warned of a direct threat. A security expert told the newspaper: "MPs are legitimate targets in the eyes of terrorists. Ministers who are in Metropolitan areas, where there are UK jihadists who have returned from Syria, are right to remain vigilant". "The definition of a terrorist attack is the threat of violence or actual violence against someone to force the government of the day to change their principal policies. Who makes the decisions? The MPs do," the expert said. "They are members of the establishment seen as being more responsible for the bombing of Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria than RAF personnel. Those MPs who recently voted in favour of bombing Syria will also be more at risk," he added. In 2010, Labour MP Stephen Timms was stabbed in his constituency office in east London by 21-year-old Islamist extremist Roshonara Choudry because he voted for the Iraq war. She was jailed for life for attempted murder. Some MPs are thought to have installed panic buttons in their constituency offices. A House of Commons spokesperson said it was policy not to discuss security matters. Scotland Yard is currently investigating around 600 terror cases relating to Syria and Iraq.