Al Qaeda Is Plotting Attacks on European Cities, Officials Say
By STEVEN ERLANGER
PARIS — Al Qaeda and associated teams are plotting new attacks on Western European capitals, European officers reported on Wednesday, but they had no actionable intelligence suggesting both the timing or particular locations.
French and German officials on Wednesday played down reports of a substantial new danger from the primary Qaeda group hiding in Pakistan, saying that any plot appeared to be within the planning levels. A single Western official familiar with the intelligence reported that this plot involved little teams of gunmen equipped with small arms who hoped to mount commando-style raids in Western European capitals, which are regarded as softer targets than america.
In Britain, security officials noted that the terrorist risk notify remained “severe,” as it has become for months, indicating that an attack is considered “highly most likely.”
But a senior French official stated that France was on higher notify due to the fact of another threat: from Al Qaeda from the Islamic Maghreb, which is linked to, but operates separately from, Al Qaeda itself.
The French official, who is also accustomed to the intelligence from Washington and allies, said, “We have received intelligence exchanges with our United states partners over the past few weeks concerning possible threats, but there was nothing along the lines of key plots in all these capitals, not with any specificity or substance behind them.”
The official stated, “Our difficulty is North Africa; it is AQIM, and it is unrelated to Pakistan.”
The German government stated in a statement from the Interior Ministry that it was aware of Al Qaeda’s “long term” aim to assault Western targets, but “at present you will find no concrete pointers to imminent episodes on Germany stemming from this.”
Alarm bells went off in Western Europe overnight, specifically in Britain, soon after reports that American intelligence was warning its allies of simultaneous plots towards European capitals, with armed males shooting civilians and taking hostages.
In Washington, a senior American official stated that various plots ended up being “in varying phases of maturity” and have been “at a worrisome level,” involving both Westerners trained by Al Qaeda in Pakistan or pre-existing Qaeda cells in Europe that rely on guidance or money from Pakistan.
France is previously on its second-highest state of alert. There may be a string of nine bomb alerts in September, which have twice meant the evacuation of your Eiffel Tower and two nearby subway stations.
But the threat from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb stems from a separate stream of intelligence, the senior French officers stated. Tensions are actually substantial commonly since the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, and on Sept. 15, five French citizens, together with two African colleagues, ended up kidnapped from the Qaeda-linked group within a uranium-mining region of Niger, in central Africa, in which they had been working for French firms. The French believe the hostages are alive and being held in northwestern Mali.
The French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, said Wednesday that “information transmitted by United states authorities, especially within the terror threat in Europe, have already been analyzed, cross-checked and, if the need arises, they’re taken into account in our nationwide evaluation of your hazard.”
A German official informed the Reuters news company that the studies might happen to be set off in component from the interrogation of a German of Afghan origin captured in Afghanistan in July. The German, explained from the German media to become named Ahmed Sidiqi, 36, from Hamburg, experienced traveled to Waziristan and received firearms and explosives training. He instructed American interrogators in Afghanistan about plans for assaults by modest armed groups in European cities, a senior European official stated.
Some of the probable attackers may possibly already be in Europe, Mr. Sidiqi stated, according to the official, and Mr. Sidiqi mentioned the Haqqani network in Pakistan as concerned in the plot. The network is allied using the Taliban and continues to be a target of some recent drone episodes in Pakistan.
A different French official speculated that the leak of Washington’s concerns about attacks in Europe from Pakistani Al Qaeda as well as the Taliban was also meant to justify the increasing drone attacks on targets inside of Pakistan, to press Pakistan to make use of ground troops more aggressively inside the tribal places and even to prepare the floor for making use of United states ground forces, covert or otherwise, inside Pakistan. Many in Washington consider that the answer to stability in Afghanistan lies in the more aggressive offensive against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants sheltering in Pakistan.
Within the last two weeks, French officers have gone around the record regarding the risk from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Bernard Squarcini, director from the Central Directorate of Domestic Intelligence warned that “all the blinkers are on red” simply because the threat to France was excessive.
The director common in the Countrywide Police, Frédéric Péchenard, reported inside a newspaper interview on Sept. 23 that France obtained been warned by a different intelligence service that a female suicide bomber supposed to attack in Paris that day. And also the interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, spoke openly in regards to the threat on Sept. 20.
France continues to be a prominent supporter of your war in Afghanistan, has passed a bill outlawing the full facial veil and has experienced an awkward debate about nationwide identity that a lot of Muslims saw as aimed at them. But the French have also employed military forces to attack Qaeda cells in northern Africa, which have taken other French hostages and killed at least one of them in retaliation in July.
In Washington, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, reported in a assertion: “We are not going to comment on distinct intelligence,” but “as we have repeatedly said, we know Al Qaeda wants to attack Europe and the usa.”
Data is routinely shared with allies, he mentioned, “in order to disrupt terrorist plotting, identify and take action in opposition to prospective operatives, and strengthen our defenses versus probable threats.”
This month, the Central Intelligence Company has escalated its bombing campaign in Pakistan working with armed drones. United states officers reported the intense bombardment in the tribal parts was intended to maintain militant teams from sending operatives across the border into Afghanistan to replenish Taliban ranks, too as to disrupt any communications between Pakistani militants and operatives who is likely to be placed in Europe. United states officials said it was unclear what impact, if any, the drone assaults would have on a terrorism plot that is perhaps carried out inside of Europe.
On Wednesday, after the Eiffel Tower acquired been evacuated the night before, the atmosphere was calm, with several tourists unaware that there could be a hazard. Chellene Tamby, 21, a business student, read on the grass from the close by Champ de Mars. She acquired heard concerning the bomb alert but mentioned, “’France is a good energy, and consequently the country is inevitably threatened.”
Too significantly public discussion just spreads panic, she said.
André Dunstetter, 71, sat on a close by bench. “We never know when and in which a bomb strike will take place, but that doesn’t mean we’ll have to cease living,” he said. “I believe that Al Qaeda’s risk is really a psychological 1, and it’s meant to destabilize safety services along with the population.”
Reporting was contributed by John F. Burns in London, Souad Mekhennet in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt in Washington.
