AMN /
Europe’s top police agency warned that Islamic State extremists may continue to try to carry out large scale attacks throughout the continent.
Islamic State is expanding its activities to a global level, with a focus on the European Union, which should prepare for more frequent acts of terror similar to the recent Paris attacks, the chief of EU police agency Europol said.
“The so-called Islamic State has developed a new combat-style capability to carry out a campaign of large-scale terrorist attacks on a global stage — with a particular focus in Europe,” Europol director Rob Wainwright told media at a news conference at the organization’s headquarters in The Hague on Monday.
In a new report released yesterday, Europol said there is every reason to expect that IS or a group with similar ideology will undertake a terrorist attack somewhere in Europe again, particularly in France, intended to cause mass casualties among the civilian population.
The agency said that a lack of credible intelligence makes the next attack unpredictable. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the report did not go significantly beyond previous warnings and was not intended to sow fear but, to look lucidly at reality.
Europol downplayed the fears that Islamic State is using the influx of refugees coming to Europe to infiltrate the EU, stressing there is no “concrete evidence” that terrorists are using the migrant influx “systematically.”
Europol concluded that IS is preparing more terrorist attacks, including copycats of the November 2008 attack in Mumbai, where coordinated bombings and shootings by multiple teams of assailants killed 164 people.
On Sunday, IS released a video celebrating the nine militants who carried out the November 13th attacks in Paris. All of the men, including three French, four Belgian and two Iraqis, died during the attacks or in the aftermath.