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Mikl-Leitner to attend Paris anti-terror meet

Austria’s Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner will be attending an anti-terrorism meeting with US and EU officials on Sunday, hosted by France in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo gun massacre.

Mikl-Leitner to attend Paris anti-terror meet
Johanna Mikl-Leitner. Photo: APA/Schlager

The Austrian Press Agency (APA) reports that US Attorney General Eric Holder has confirmed his attendance and that around ten other EU interior ministers are expected in Paris.

Twelve people were shot dead and 11 injured in the attack on the satirical magazine in the centre of Paris.

Mikl-Leitner has said that she is reviewing Austria’s security situation and that the number of Austrians who have returned from fighting in Syria and Iraq after becoming radicalized does represent a threat – although she called for a “prudent response”.

“We cannot allow the pendulum to swing the other way – and any kind of extremism should be discouraged,” she said in a statement to APA.

"These criminals want to divide our society with fear and terror. We must not allow this – otherwise they have already won," she added.

The Interior Ministry says nearly 200 people from Austria have left to join the fighting in the Middle East since the Syrian conflict started more than three years ago.

The offices of Austria’s Der Standard newspaper now has a police guard after it received threats, according to a report in the Heute newspaper.

Chancellor Werner Faymann has said that strengthening the security forces to fight against Islamist criminals is a priority.  

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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