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ISLAM

Austrian jihad teen girl ‘likely killed’

According to David Scharia, a senior Israeli expert of the United Nations Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTED), one of the two teenage girls who fled to Syria in Spring to join the jihad has been killed in fighting.

Austrian jihad teen girl 'likely killed'
Sabina (L) and Samra (R). Photo: APA/Interpol
The two girls are reported to have travelled to Syria from their homes in Vienna earlier this year. 
 
"We received information just recently about two 15-year-old girls, of Bosnian origin, who left Austria, where they had been living in recent years; and everyone, the families and the intelligence services of the two countries, is looking for them.
 
Both were recruited by Islamic State. One was killed in the fighting in Syria, the other has disappeared," he said in the interview published on Monday on the Israeli internet portal ynetnews.com.
 
When the Austrian Press Association (APA) asked the Foreign Ministry for confirmation, they said that there has been no independent confirmation of this information. Furthermore, they said, these are not isolated cases, as other teenage girls have disappeared to Syria.
 
The two Viennese girls, Samra K. and Sabina S – whose parents are Bosnian refugees – disappeared in April after saying that they wanted to fight in Syria.
 
They are thought to have travelled to Ankara by plane, and then on into the southern Turkish region of Adana. After that, their tracks were lost, although some posts on social media networks surfaced claiming to be from the girls – but these have not been authenticated.
 
An Islamic preacher from Bosnia who is based in Vienna, Mirsad O., (known by the Islamic name Ebu Tejma), was allegedly responsible for the radicalization of the two young girls, brainwashing them into joining the jihad.
 
He has denied this, and has said that he plans to sue the Österreich and Heute newspapers for libel. Mirsad O. was arrested for his role in an alleged terrorist funding network based in Austria in November.

TERRORISM

What is the risk of new terror attacks in Austria?

Following the March 22nd attack in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall that left over 140 dead, European governments are evaluating the threat of terror attacks. Is Austria a target for fresh terrorist attacks?

What is the risk of new terror attacks in Austria?

With responsibility for the Moscow attack being taken by the Islamist terror organisation ISIS-K, national intelligence services are reevaluating the threat posed to targets within their borders. 

‘No concrete threat’

Austrian officials have been quick to give their appraisal of the situation. 

“We currently have the Islamist scene under control,” stressed Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the Directorate of State Security & Intelligence (DSN) – the governmental agency responsible for combatting internal threats – in an interview with the Ö1 Morgenjournal radio programme on Tuesday. 

He continued: “The terrorist attacks in Moscow, for example, definitely increase the risk. But at the moment, we do not see any concrete threat of an attack in Austria,”

Other experts and officials have warned that while there are no concrete threats, Austrians should not be complacent. 

‘Situation is still valid’ 

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner announced tighter security at church festivals during the Easter period, in the days after the attack, and stressed that the high terror alert level introduced after the October 7 Hamas attacks was still in place. 

“This increased risk situation is still valid,” noted Karner.

READ MORE: What does Austria’s raised terror alert mean for the public?

Meanwhile, terror researcher Peter Neumann of King’s College London told ORF’s ‘ZiB 2’ news broadcast on Monday that Austria remains a potential target due to its Central Asian migrant population. 

Neumann noted that countries at most risk are those “in which Tajik and Central Asian diasporas exist and where ISIS-K finds it relatively easy to identify and recruit people”. 

He continued, identifying both Austria and Germany as “countries in which the ISPK is particularly active and which are particularly at risk from terrorist attacks”.

New threats

Austria has not been spared from attacks from homegrown terrorists.

On November 2nd 2020, amid Coronavirus lockdowns, Austrian-born Kujtim Fejzulai shot and killed four, injuring twenty-three others during a shooting spree across Vienna. He was ultimately shot dead by police. 

Fejzulai was already under surveillance by federal authorities for his beliefs and had been released from prison on parole less than a year before. 

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