Czech/Muslim Brotherhood – The Czech president has claimed on the 5 Jan 16 the migration crisis in Europe is the result of a plan by the Muslim Brotherhood to “gain control of Europe”. Milos Zeman explained the Brotherhood lacked the resources to launch a military invasion of the continent so was sending waves of migrants as an alternative force. “It cannot declare war on Europe, it does not have enough forces for it, but it can prepare a growing migrant wave and gradually gain control of Europe as it has been happening in some West European cities that police are afraid to enter at night,” Mr Zeman told Czech Radio. The president cited the Moroccan foreign minister and a crown prince from the United Arab Emirates as his sources of information behind his claim. “Based on these two information sources, Muslims and leading Arab politicians in both cases, I believe that the invasion is organised by the Muslim Brotherhood using, naturally, the financial means of a number of states, he added.
Mr Zeman’s talk of an organised invasion rather than a chaotic outflow of people from the war-torn Middle East will re-enforce his reputation as a steadfast opponent to migration at odds with the Czech government, which has said it is willing to take a quota of migrants under an EU distribution plan. Late last year Mr Zeman added fuel to a fiery row between himself and Boguslav Sobotka, the Czech prime minister, when he suggested the prime minister was putting Czech security at risk by failing to recognise the migration crisis as an “organised invasion”. The president's accusations come just days after the prime minister claimed Mr Zeman had “legitimised the spread of xenophobia and hatred” by appearing at a rally with members of a radical anti-immigration movement, whose leader has suggested Muslims should be ground into bone meal.
France – Investigators discovered jihadist propaganda on the 2 Jan 16 on the computer of a French Muslim who rammed his car into four soldiers - only hours after a prosecutor ruled out terrorism as a motive for the attack. “JIhadist propaganda images were found on computer equipment belonging to the driver,” Alex Perrin, a local prosecutor, revealed. He did not immediately give details of the images. Earlier Mr Perrin had said there was “no evidence that could indicate an act of terrorism” even though he said the 29-year-old unemployed man of Tunisian descent had reportedly been heard shouting “Allahu Akhbar” (Arabic for ‘God is the greatest’). The man drove into the soldiers, who were guarding a large mosque in a suburb of the southern city of Valence, on New Year’s Day.
One soldier was slightly hurt when he was hit by the car, a Peugeot. The driver, who has not been named, was seriously injured in the leg and arm when the soldiers opened fire. A 72-year-old bystander was injured by a stray bullet. Mr Perrin said the man had told emergency workers who gave him first aid that he “wanted to be killed by soldiers and to kill soldiers” because they “killed other people.” The man has no criminal record and is “not known to the intelligence services as a member of a radical or religious group,” he said. Neither is he known to suffer from mental illness. Mr Perrin described him as “rather confused”. Witnesses said the driver accelerated as he drove towards the four soldiers in a car park outside the mosque. The soldiers shouted a warning, and fired when he drove back at them again.
France – Police in Paris shot dead a man wielding a meat cleaver and a fake suicide vest outside a police station while shouting Alahu Akbar, a year after Islamists killed 12 at Charlie Hebdo’s offices. The assailant, described as “threatening” by police sources, was gunned down as he tried to force his way into the police station of Paris’ 18th arrondissement. He was found to be wearing a pouch taped to his coat with wires dangling from it. However, it later proved to be a “fake” suicide belt. He was named by French media as Sallah Ali, a 20-year old homeless Moroccan born in Casablanca in 1995. His finger prints matched those of a man arrested for theft in 2013 in southern France. A scrap of paper found on his body said he wanted to act "to avenge the dead in Syria" and the man had "pledged allegiance to ISIL", according to sources close to the inquiry on the 7 Jan 16. Christiane Taubira, the French justice minister, said the fake belt and nature of his written claims suggested he was "unstable".
France/United Kingdom – The so-called jungle camp in Calais may be a refuge for returning jihadis to "hide in plain sight" before "smuggling themselves" into the UK, a former head of police counter-terrorism has said on the 11 Jan 16. During a visit to inspect the area Kevin Hurley said he was concerned the camp was "completely un-policed". But the head of a charity working at the camp called his claim "ridiculous". The camp, on the outskirts of Calais, has grown in recent months and is now home to thousands of migrants.
Mr Hurley, the former lead on counter-terrorism at the City of London Police and current police and crime commissioner for Surrey, spent several hours in the camp with the BBC. He said he was worried the camp was "a potential hiding space" and that people there could be being exploited by organised criminals. "If I were a returning jihadi, I would smuggle myself in amongst this group; you would easily get lost," he said. Speaking to migrants at the camp, Mr Hurley was told that there were dangerous people staying in the "jungle". One migrant said there were people at the camp who were "working for way of Da’esh", although they were not part of the jihadist group. Another migrant from Afghanistan also told the BBC team there had been a murder in the area on the previous night. A former Scotland Yard counter-terrorist investigator said he had similar worries about the "jungle".
David Videcette said the "biggest risk" from the camp was UK nationals "who are trying to avoid detection by police... are now attempting to re-enter the country claiming to be asylum seekers". However, the founder of Care4Calais, a UK charity set up to help migrants staying in the camp, dismissed the claims as "the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard". Clare Moseley said: "You would have to be the world's stupidest terrorist to try and enter Britain as a refugee, because when you come as a refugee you are subject to detailed background checks." Home Secretary Theresa May has previously told MPs all refugees coming to Britain will be subject to rigorous security checks to make sure IS militants are not among them. Nevertheless, Mr Hurley insisted that it was not possible to carry out such detailed checks. "You can't check a person with no passport coming from a fractured country", he said.
361 COMMENT: Baring in mind that a couple of the terrorists who carried out the attack in Paris, France in the latter part of 2015 came through Greece and there was no knowledge of them as they had travelled on false passports its is perfectly feasible that jihadis wishing to return or have been instructed to return to the UK un-noticed could take this route. After all there is not that many ways back into the UK. In a British newspaper it was reported on the 11 Jan 16 that the male who attacked French police on the 7 Jan 16 with a meat clever and a fake suicide vest had stayed in the refugee accommodation in Recklinghausen. He was then able to travel to France without being detected. COMMENT ENDS
France – A teenager who attacked a Jewish teacher in Marseille on the 11 Jan 16 is a Turkish citizen of Kurdish origin who said he acted in the name of the militant Islamist group Islamic State, the prosecutor in the southern French city of Marseille said. The victim used a Torah book as a shield, according to one news website, which carried a photo of the blood-stained book. Its leather binding showed a deep cut. “He claimed to have acted in the name of Allah and the Islamic State, repeating several times to have done on behalf of Da’esh (Islamic State),” the prosecutor, Brice Robin, told a news conference. The 15 year-old, who was armed with a machete and a knife, wounded the teacher in his back and in one of his arms before being stopped and arrested.
The attack on the victim, who was wearing a kippah, occurred in daylight in front of a municipal building in the 9th district of Marseille, a police said. According to the French Jewish news website alyaexpress-news.com, the victim is in his thirties. Identified only as Benjamin A., he was on his way to the Dvar Avraham synagogue when the attack happened, according to that website. Witnesses said the alleged assailant shouted “allah hu akbar,” before the attack, the report said. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve earlier called the attack a “brutal anti-semitic aggression.” France has the highest Jewish and the Muslim populations in Europe. Violent racial incidents have been in the spotlight since Islamic State claimed a co-ordinated series of attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 in which 130 people were killed. The attack on the victim, who was wearing a kippah, occurred in daylight in front of a municipal building in the 9th district of Marseille, a police said.
Germany – The mayor of Cologne has summoned police for crisis talks after about 80 women reported sexual assaults and muggings by men on New Year's Eve it was reported on the 5 Jan 16. The scale of the attacks on women at the city's central train station has shocked Germany. About 1,000 drunk and aggressive young men were involved. City police chief Wolfgang Albers called it "a completely new dimension of crime". The men were of Arab or North African appearance, he said. Women were also targeted in Hamburg. But the Cologne assaults - near the city's iconic cathedral - were the most serious, German media report. At least one woman was raped, and many were groped. Police were deployed in the area because of the crowds on New Year's Eve but failed to spot the many attacks on women, according to reports. Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker said the attacks were "monstrous".
We cannot allow this to become a lawless area," she said, insisting that visitors could not come to the city fearing attack. Cologne news website Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger says the suspects were already known to police because of frequent pickpocketing in and around Cologne central station. Police are trying to find out whether the men who targeted women on the night of the 31 Dec 15 surrounding, molesting and robbing them, organised their assaults through social media. They are also studying mobile phone and CCTV surveillance videos. In Hamburg several women told police that gangs of men had molested and robbed them on New Year's Eve on the Reeperbahn - a street known for its boisterous night life.
08 Jan 16 – Germany must examine whether it has done enough to deport foreigners who commit crimes, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in response to a series of New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Cologne. Police say witnesses have described the perpetrators as being of "Arab or North African origin", but there is little solid information so far on who committed the assaults. Still, Merkel said on the 7 Jan 16 in Berlin, "we must examine again and again whether we have already done what is necessary in terms of ... deportations from Germany in order to send clear signals to those who are not prepared to abide by our legal order". Heiko Maas, Germany's justice minister, said in an interview with the Funke newspaper that "deportations would certainly be conceivable", adding "that penalty is in principle absolutely possible for sexual offences".
Police said on the 8 Jan 16 they have now received 170 criminal complaints related to the New Year attacks, including 120 of a sexual nature. At least 18 asylum-seekers have been identified from among 31 suspects in connection with robberies and assaults. They were believed to be among a group of up to 1,000 people in front of Cologne's main railway station on New Years. However, none of the 31 is currently suspected of committing sexual assaults of the kind that have prompted outrage in Germany over the past week. Interior Ministry spokesman Tobias Plate said the suspects were nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, five Iranians, four Syrians, two Germans and one person each from Iraq, Serbia and the United States.
Authorities do not yet have names for most of the men. Speculation over the nationalities of the perpetrators has been seized on by some opponents of Germany's welcoming stance towards those fleeing conflict, after the country registered nearly 1.1 million asylum-seekers last year. Officials have cautioned that it is important not to cast suspicion on refugees in general. Government spokesman Georg Streiter said the chancellor wants "the whole truth" about the incidents in Cologne and that "nothing should be held back and nothing should be glossed over". "It doesn't just harm our rule of law but also the great majority of completely innocent refugees who have sought protection" in Germany, he said. Merkel said the New Year's assaults were "repugnant criminal acts that ... Germany will not accept" and that legal changes or extra police presence may be examined. "The feeling women had in this case of being at people's mercy, without any protection, is intolerable for me personally as well," she said. "And so it is important for everything that happened there to be put on the table."
361 COMMENT: This type of behaviour is not acceptable in any country especially when it opens its doors and you are invited to stay in a safe environment. If, however, the acts were conducted by those who were new to the country and it will be important to glean the facts for to not do so will only fuel far-right organisation propaganda. Other countries with a large influx of migrants will be watching this incident from Germany very closely and will draw up their own plans. The first will be how to avoid a repetition; the second will be how they will deal with perpetrators who have committed offences. What will not help with the situation in Germany was the news that Adolf Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf (My Struggle) hit the stores on the 8 Jan 16 and was reportedly sold out. With other countries (Sweden, Finland, Austria and Switzerland) revealing later that they too had similar incidents the question has to be asked as to who organised such an attack.
If it was one or two isolated incidents in different countries then it could be put down to coincidence but with other countries stating a similar claim you have to start asking who is behind the attacks. German authorities said on e the 11 Jan 16 that would be more details released as the investigation progresses but also admitted that there were up to 500 filed complaints which is a huge increase on the 379 cases which was submitted on the 9 Jan 16, two days prior. If these attacks are the work of an orchestrated group, what else are they capable of? It would appear that someone somewhere has done their homework and realised that Germany is possibly the weak link due to its past and will be the country to launch attacks of various types from across Europe. COMMENT ENDS
Spain – Spanish security officials say they have received more than 600 anonymous tip-offs regarding possible Islamic extremists under a new project set up to better anticipate the threat of attacks. An Interior Ministry statement on the 29 Dec 15 but reported on the 3 Jan 16 said police considered just under half the tip-offs to be of value to security services. The project launched on the 4 Dec 15 allows people to contact the Intelligence Centre for Terrorism and Organized Crime anonymously through a website, a mobile app or a free telephone hotline. They are monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Spain has arrested more than 90 suspected Islamic extremists so far this year. Europe's worst attack by Islamic militants occurred in Spain in 2004, when bombs on Madrid commuter trains killed 191 people.
Sweden – Parts of Sweden's Stockholm-Skavsta Airport were evacuated today after traces of explosive powder were detected on a piece of luggage at the security check, police said on the 10 Jan 16. A bomb squad from Stockholm is on its way to the airport, which is around 60 miles south-west of the capital. 'The baggage and departure halls were evacuated, which has affected departing flights but not arrivals,' police duty officer Roland Lindkvist said. A statement on the airport's website said its terminal was closed temporarily and passengers would be updated at 1300 hrs local time. It said: 'The terminal for departing passengers is closed due to possible indication of suspicious object. 'Bomb squad is on site, and has started their work with the bag. The airport is awaiting clearance from the police to re-open the terminal and resume air traffic.’
Airport officials say they had closed the departure lounge at Skavsta Airport and halted outgoing flights after a suspicious powder was found in a passenger's hand luggage. Spokesman Joakim Lindholm said that parts of the check-in area and baggage hall of the departure terminal were evacuated, delaying at least three flights by more than two hours, while a bomb squad checked the suspect bag. Mr Linqvist added: 'The bag in question belongs to an elderly lady and she is cooperating with us. She says she doesn't know how the powder got on her bag.' Skavsta Airport is the fifth largest in the country and serves primarily low-cost and cargo carriers, handling around 2.5million passengers a year.
United Kingdom/Da’esh – The Islamic State group threatened Britain in an Internet video on the 3 Jan 16 showing the killing of five "spies" it said worked with the international coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The SITE Intelligence Group said the video shows five men from Raqa, capital of the self-declared jihadist "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq, confessing to carrying out acts of espionage. In it, an English-speaking ISIS fighter mocks British Prime Minister David Cameron for challenging ISIS, and calls him an "imbecile". The "confessions" of the five do not clearly identify which countries they worked with, but one mentions the international coalition led by the United States battling against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The video said they passed videos or photos of the living conditions in Raqa to people in Turkey, or monitored the movements of ISIS fighters. The following sequence shows the five wearing orange jumpsuits and kneeling before five masked fighters, all in military fatigues and armed with pistols. "This is a message to David Cameron," says one of the gunmen. "How strange it is that we find ourselves today hearing an insignificant leader like you challenge the might of the Islamic State." British warplanes, which were already attacking ISIS positions in Iraq, at the beginning of Dec 15 began targeting the jihadists in Syria also.
"Only an imbecile would dare to wage war against a land where the law of Allah reigns supreme and where the people live under the justice and security of sharia" or Islamic law, the fighter says. "We will continue to wage jihad... and one day invade your land, where we will rule by the sharia." He said those who want to continue fighting "under the banner of Cameron" should ask themselves: "Do you really think your government will care about you when you come into our hands, or will they abandon you as they have abandoned these spies and those who came before them?" The five men are then killed with a bullet to the head. ISIS often releases propaganda videos when it suffers setbacks on the battlefield, experts say. In Iraq last Sunday, federal forces declared victory in the battle for Ramadi, which IS seized in May 2015. And on December 26, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters in northern Syria seized the strategic Tishreen Dam from ISIS which the jihadist group had held since 2014.
Follow On Report: The main suspect in the latest propaganda video by so-called Islamic State is thought to be British man Siddhartha Dhar, the BBC stated on the 5 Jan 16. An official source told the BBC Mr Dhar was the focus of investigations into the video, which purports to show the killing of five men IS says were spies. "A lot of people think it is him," the source said, although there has been no official confirmation. Mr Dhar, also known as Abu Rumaysah, fled Britain in 2014 while on bail. The father-of-four, from Walthamstow in east London, had been arrested on suspicion of encouraging terrorism, but later travelled to Syria after being bailed. Born a Hindu, Mr Dhar ran a business renting out bouncy castles in London before converting to Islam and joining the radical group al-Muhajiroun. Earlier, one of his associates said he had "no doubt" the voice on the video was that of Mr Dhar. Mr Dhar's sister said that when she first heard the audio of the video she feared it was her brother, although having watched a clip she was now not so sure. "I believed the audio to resemble, from what I remember, the voice of my brother but having viewed the short clip in detail, I wasn't entirely convinced which put me at ease". On the subject of Mr Dhar leaving for Syria while on bail, the former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, Sir Peter Fahy, who has previously led on counter-terrorism for the Association of Chief Police Officers said it was "incredibly difficult" to monitor somebody 24 hours a day. "At the moment, clearly people are able to leave the country without the same level of controls there is when people come into the country," he said.
Profile: Siddhartha Dhar
Following his conversion, he became a leading member and speaker for the al-Muhajiroun network, a group banned under terrorism legislation. He would regularly attend demonstrations against the US, Israel, Arab regimes or any other cause the group believed to be un-Islamic. He would stand outside mosques on Friday afternoons, seeking to find new followers to the radical network's way of thinking. He would post videos online and rarely turned down an opportunity to speak to the media. And when he spoke, he barely hid his radical views.
Jihadi Junior confirmed to be Isa Dare, son of British fanatic with links to Lee Rigby killers.
Mr Zeman’s talk of an organised invasion rather than a chaotic outflow of people from the war-torn Middle East will re-enforce his reputation as a steadfast opponent to migration at odds with the Czech government, which has said it is willing to take a quota of migrants under an EU distribution plan. Late last year Mr Zeman added fuel to a fiery row between himself and Boguslav Sobotka, the Czech prime minister, when he suggested the prime minister was putting Czech security at risk by failing to recognise the migration crisis as an “organised invasion”. The president's accusations come just days after the prime minister claimed Mr Zeman had “legitimised the spread of xenophobia and hatred” by appearing at a rally with members of a radical anti-immigration movement, whose leader has suggested Muslims should be ground into bone meal.
France – Investigators discovered jihadist propaganda on the 2 Jan 16 on the computer of a French Muslim who rammed his car into four soldiers - only hours after a prosecutor ruled out terrorism as a motive for the attack. “JIhadist propaganda images were found on computer equipment belonging to the driver,” Alex Perrin, a local prosecutor, revealed. He did not immediately give details of the images. Earlier Mr Perrin had said there was “no evidence that could indicate an act of terrorism” even though he said the 29-year-old unemployed man of Tunisian descent had reportedly been heard shouting “Allahu Akhbar” (Arabic for ‘God is the greatest’). The man drove into the soldiers, who were guarding a large mosque in a suburb of the southern city of Valence, on New Year’s Day.
One soldier was slightly hurt when he was hit by the car, a Peugeot. The driver, who has not been named, was seriously injured in the leg and arm when the soldiers opened fire. A 72-year-old bystander was injured by a stray bullet. Mr Perrin said the man had told emergency workers who gave him first aid that he “wanted to be killed by soldiers and to kill soldiers” because they “killed other people.” The man has no criminal record and is “not known to the intelligence services as a member of a radical or religious group,” he said. Neither is he known to suffer from mental illness. Mr Perrin described him as “rather confused”. Witnesses said the driver accelerated as he drove towards the four soldiers in a car park outside the mosque. The soldiers shouted a warning, and fired when he drove back at them again.
France – Police in Paris shot dead a man wielding a meat cleaver and a fake suicide vest outside a police station while shouting Alahu Akbar, a year after Islamists killed 12 at Charlie Hebdo’s offices. The assailant, described as “threatening” by police sources, was gunned down as he tried to force his way into the police station of Paris’ 18th arrondissement. He was found to be wearing a pouch taped to his coat with wires dangling from it. However, it later proved to be a “fake” suicide belt. He was named by French media as Sallah Ali, a 20-year old homeless Moroccan born in Casablanca in 1995. His finger prints matched those of a man arrested for theft in 2013 in southern France. A scrap of paper found on his body said he wanted to act "to avenge the dead in Syria" and the man had "pledged allegiance to ISIL", according to sources close to the inquiry on the 7 Jan 16. Christiane Taubira, the French justice minister, said the fake belt and nature of his written claims suggested he was "unstable".
France/United Kingdom – The so-called jungle camp in Calais may be a refuge for returning jihadis to "hide in plain sight" before "smuggling themselves" into the UK, a former head of police counter-terrorism has said on the 11 Jan 16. During a visit to inspect the area Kevin Hurley said he was concerned the camp was "completely un-policed". But the head of a charity working at the camp called his claim "ridiculous". The camp, on the outskirts of Calais, has grown in recent months and is now home to thousands of migrants.
Mr Hurley, the former lead on counter-terrorism at the City of London Police and current police and crime commissioner for Surrey, spent several hours in the camp with the BBC. He said he was worried the camp was "a potential hiding space" and that people there could be being exploited by organised criminals. "If I were a returning jihadi, I would smuggle myself in amongst this group; you would easily get lost," he said. Speaking to migrants at the camp, Mr Hurley was told that there were dangerous people staying in the "jungle". One migrant said there were people at the camp who were "working for way of Da’esh", although they were not part of the jihadist group. Another migrant from Afghanistan also told the BBC team there had been a murder in the area on the previous night. A former Scotland Yard counter-terrorist investigator said he had similar worries about the "jungle".
David Videcette said the "biggest risk" from the camp was UK nationals "who are trying to avoid detection by police... are now attempting to re-enter the country claiming to be asylum seekers". However, the founder of Care4Calais, a UK charity set up to help migrants staying in the camp, dismissed the claims as "the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard". Clare Moseley said: "You would have to be the world's stupidest terrorist to try and enter Britain as a refugee, because when you come as a refugee you are subject to detailed background checks." Home Secretary Theresa May has previously told MPs all refugees coming to Britain will be subject to rigorous security checks to make sure IS militants are not among them. Nevertheless, Mr Hurley insisted that it was not possible to carry out such detailed checks. "You can't check a person with no passport coming from a fractured country", he said.
361 COMMENT: Baring in mind that a couple of the terrorists who carried out the attack in Paris, France in the latter part of 2015 came through Greece and there was no knowledge of them as they had travelled on false passports its is perfectly feasible that jihadis wishing to return or have been instructed to return to the UK un-noticed could take this route. After all there is not that many ways back into the UK. In a British newspaper it was reported on the 11 Jan 16 that the male who attacked French police on the 7 Jan 16 with a meat clever and a fake suicide vest had stayed in the refugee accommodation in Recklinghausen. He was then able to travel to France without being detected. COMMENT ENDS
France – A teenager who attacked a Jewish teacher in Marseille on the 11 Jan 16 is a Turkish citizen of Kurdish origin who said he acted in the name of the militant Islamist group Islamic State, the prosecutor in the southern French city of Marseille said. The victim used a Torah book as a shield, according to one news website, which carried a photo of the blood-stained book. Its leather binding showed a deep cut. “He claimed to have acted in the name of Allah and the Islamic State, repeating several times to have done on behalf of Da’esh (Islamic State),” the prosecutor, Brice Robin, told a news conference. The 15 year-old, who was armed with a machete and a knife, wounded the teacher in his back and in one of his arms before being stopped and arrested.
The attack on the victim, who was wearing a kippah, occurred in daylight in front of a municipal building in the 9th district of Marseille, a police said. According to the French Jewish news website alyaexpress-news.com, the victim is in his thirties. Identified only as Benjamin A., he was on his way to the Dvar Avraham synagogue when the attack happened, according to that website. Witnesses said the alleged assailant shouted “allah hu akbar,” before the attack, the report said. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve earlier called the attack a “brutal anti-semitic aggression.” France has the highest Jewish and the Muslim populations in Europe. Violent racial incidents have been in the spotlight since Islamic State claimed a co-ordinated series of attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 in which 130 people were killed. The attack on the victim, who was wearing a kippah, occurred in daylight in front of a municipal building in the 9th district of Marseille, a police said.
Germany – The mayor of Cologne has summoned police for crisis talks after about 80 women reported sexual assaults and muggings by men on New Year's Eve it was reported on the 5 Jan 16. The scale of the attacks on women at the city's central train station has shocked Germany. About 1,000 drunk and aggressive young men were involved. City police chief Wolfgang Albers called it "a completely new dimension of crime". The men were of Arab or North African appearance, he said. Women were also targeted in Hamburg. But the Cologne assaults - near the city's iconic cathedral - were the most serious, German media report. At least one woman was raped, and many were groped. Police were deployed in the area because of the crowds on New Year's Eve but failed to spot the many attacks on women, according to reports. Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker said the attacks were "monstrous".
We cannot allow this to become a lawless area," she said, insisting that visitors could not come to the city fearing attack. Cologne news website Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger says the suspects were already known to police because of frequent pickpocketing in and around Cologne central station. Police are trying to find out whether the men who targeted women on the night of the 31 Dec 15 surrounding, molesting and robbing them, organised their assaults through social media. They are also studying mobile phone and CCTV surveillance videos. In Hamburg several women told police that gangs of men had molested and robbed them on New Year's Eve on the Reeperbahn - a street known for its boisterous night life.
08 Jan 16 – Germany must examine whether it has done enough to deport foreigners who commit crimes, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in response to a series of New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Cologne. Police say witnesses have described the perpetrators as being of "Arab or North African origin", but there is little solid information so far on who committed the assaults. Still, Merkel said on the 7 Jan 16 in Berlin, "we must examine again and again whether we have already done what is necessary in terms of ... deportations from Germany in order to send clear signals to those who are not prepared to abide by our legal order". Heiko Maas, Germany's justice minister, said in an interview with the Funke newspaper that "deportations would certainly be conceivable", adding "that penalty is in principle absolutely possible for sexual offences".
Police said on the 8 Jan 16 they have now received 170 criminal complaints related to the New Year attacks, including 120 of a sexual nature. At least 18 asylum-seekers have been identified from among 31 suspects in connection with robberies and assaults. They were believed to be among a group of up to 1,000 people in front of Cologne's main railway station on New Years. However, none of the 31 is currently suspected of committing sexual assaults of the kind that have prompted outrage in Germany over the past week. Interior Ministry spokesman Tobias Plate said the suspects were nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, five Iranians, four Syrians, two Germans and one person each from Iraq, Serbia and the United States.
Authorities do not yet have names for most of the men. Speculation over the nationalities of the perpetrators has been seized on by some opponents of Germany's welcoming stance towards those fleeing conflict, after the country registered nearly 1.1 million asylum-seekers last year. Officials have cautioned that it is important not to cast suspicion on refugees in general. Government spokesman Georg Streiter said the chancellor wants "the whole truth" about the incidents in Cologne and that "nothing should be held back and nothing should be glossed over". "It doesn't just harm our rule of law but also the great majority of completely innocent refugees who have sought protection" in Germany, he said. Merkel said the New Year's assaults were "repugnant criminal acts that ... Germany will not accept" and that legal changes or extra police presence may be examined. "The feeling women had in this case of being at people's mercy, without any protection, is intolerable for me personally as well," she said. "And so it is important for everything that happened there to be put on the table."
361 COMMENT: This type of behaviour is not acceptable in any country especially when it opens its doors and you are invited to stay in a safe environment. If, however, the acts were conducted by those who were new to the country and it will be important to glean the facts for to not do so will only fuel far-right organisation propaganda. Other countries with a large influx of migrants will be watching this incident from Germany very closely and will draw up their own plans. The first will be how to avoid a repetition; the second will be how they will deal with perpetrators who have committed offences. What will not help with the situation in Germany was the news that Adolf Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf (My Struggle) hit the stores on the 8 Jan 16 and was reportedly sold out. With other countries (Sweden, Finland, Austria and Switzerland) revealing later that they too had similar incidents the question has to be asked as to who organised such an attack.
If it was one or two isolated incidents in different countries then it could be put down to coincidence but with other countries stating a similar claim you have to start asking who is behind the attacks. German authorities said on e the 11 Jan 16 that would be more details released as the investigation progresses but also admitted that there were up to 500 filed complaints which is a huge increase on the 379 cases which was submitted on the 9 Jan 16, two days prior. If these attacks are the work of an orchestrated group, what else are they capable of? It would appear that someone somewhere has done their homework and realised that Germany is possibly the weak link due to its past and will be the country to launch attacks of various types from across Europe. COMMENT ENDS
Spain – Spanish security officials say they have received more than 600 anonymous tip-offs regarding possible Islamic extremists under a new project set up to better anticipate the threat of attacks. An Interior Ministry statement on the 29 Dec 15 but reported on the 3 Jan 16 said police considered just under half the tip-offs to be of value to security services. The project launched on the 4 Dec 15 allows people to contact the Intelligence Centre for Terrorism and Organized Crime anonymously through a website, a mobile app or a free telephone hotline. They are monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Spain has arrested more than 90 suspected Islamic extremists so far this year. Europe's worst attack by Islamic militants occurred in Spain in 2004, when bombs on Madrid commuter trains killed 191 people.
Sweden – Parts of Sweden's Stockholm-Skavsta Airport were evacuated today after traces of explosive powder were detected on a piece of luggage at the security check, police said on the 10 Jan 16. A bomb squad from Stockholm is on its way to the airport, which is around 60 miles south-west of the capital. 'The baggage and departure halls were evacuated, which has affected departing flights but not arrivals,' police duty officer Roland Lindkvist said. A statement on the airport's website said its terminal was closed temporarily and passengers would be updated at 1300 hrs local time. It said: 'The terminal for departing passengers is closed due to possible indication of suspicious object. 'Bomb squad is on site, and has started their work with the bag. The airport is awaiting clearance from the police to re-open the terminal and resume air traffic.’
Airport officials say they had closed the departure lounge at Skavsta Airport and halted outgoing flights after a suspicious powder was found in a passenger's hand luggage. Spokesman Joakim Lindholm said that parts of the check-in area and baggage hall of the departure terminal were evacuated, delaying at least three flights by more than two hours, while a bomb squad checked the suspect bag. Mr Linqvist added: 'The bag in question belongs to an elderly lady and she is cooperating with us. She says she doesn't know how the powder got on her bag.' Skavsta Airport is the fifth largest in the country and serves primarily low-cost and cargo carriers, handling around 2.5million passengers a year.
United Kingdom/Da’esh – The Islamic State group threatened Britain in an Internet video on the 3 Jan 16 showing the killing of five "spies" it said worked with the international coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The SITE Intelligence Group said the video shows five men from Raqa, capital of the self-declared jihadist "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq, confessing to carrying out acts of espionage. In it, an English-speaking ISIS fighter mocks British Prime Minister David Cameron for challenging ISIS, and calls him an "imbecile". The "confessions" of the five do not clearly identify which countries they worked with, but one mentions the international coalition led by the United States battling against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The video said they passed videos or photos of the living conditions in Raqa to people in Turkey, or monitored the movements of ISIS fighters. The following sequence shows the five wearing orange jumpsuits and kneeling before five masked fighters, all in military fatigues and armed with pistols. "This is a message to David Cameron," says one of the gunmen. "How strange it is that we find ourselves today hearing an insignificant leader like you challenge the might of the Islamic State." British warplanes, which were already attacking ISIS positions in Iraq, at the beginning of Dec 15 began targeting the jihadists in Syria also.
"Only an imbecile would dare to wage war against a land where the law of Allah reigns supreme and where the people live under the justice and security of sharia" or Islamic law, the fighter says. "We will continue to wage jihad... and one day invade your land, where we will rule by the sharia." He said those who want to continue fighting "under the banner of Cameron" should ask themselves: "Do you really think your government will care about you when you come into our hands, or will they abandon you as they have abandoned these spies and those who came before them?" The five men are then killed with a bullet to the head. ISIS often releases propaganda videos when it suffers setbacks on the battlefield, experts say. In Iraq last Sunday, federal forces declared victory in the battle for Ramadi, which IS seized in May 2015. And on December 26, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters in northern Syria seized the strategic Tishreen Dam from ISIS which the jihadist group had held since 2014.
Follow On Report: The main suspect in the latest propaganda video by so-called Islamic State is thought to be British man Siddhartha Dhar, the BBC stated on the 5 Jan 16. An official source told the BBC Mr Dhar was the focus of investigations into the video, which purports to show the killing of five men IS says were spies. "A lot of people think it is him," the source said, although there has been no official confirmation. Mr Dhar, also known as Abu Rumaysah, fled Britain in 2014 while on bail. The father-of-four, from Walthamstow in east London, had been arrested on suspicion of encouraging terrorism, but later travelled to Syria after being bailed. Born a Hindu, Mr Dhar ran a business renting out bouncy castles in London before converting to Islam and joining the radical group al-Muhajiroun. Earlier, one of his associates said he had "no doubt" the voice on the video was that of Mr Dhar. Mr Dhar's sister said that when she first heard the audio of the video she feared it was her brother, although having watched a clip she was now not so sure. "I believed the audio to resemble, from what I remember, the voice of my brother but having viewed the short clip in detail, I wasn't entirely convinced which put me at ease". On the subject of Mr Dhar leaving for Syria while on bail, the former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, Sir Peter Fahy, who has previously led on counter-terrorism for the Association of Chief Police Officers said it was "incredibly difficult" to monitor somebody 24 hours a day. "At the moment, clearly people are able to leave the country without the same level of controls there is when people come into the country," he said.
Profile: Siddhartha Dhar
Following his conversion, he became a leading member and speaker for the al-Muhajiroun network, a group banned under terrorism legislation. He would regularly attend demonstrations against the US, Israel, Arab regimes or any other cause the group believed to be un-Islamic. He would stand outside mosques on Friday afternoons, seeking to find new followers to the radical network's way of thinking. He would post videos online and rarely turned down an opportunity to speak to the media. And when he spoke, he barely hid his radical views.
Jihadi Junior confirmed to be Isa Dare, son of British fanatic with links to Lee Rigby killers.
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