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TERRORISM

New weapons for special forces police

Austria’s special forces police will be reinforced with extra officers, cutting edge technology and weapons and armoured limousines to deal with the higher threat to security from terrorists, Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner has said.

New weapons for special forces police
File photo: Paul Gillingwater

The new equipment, which will include the latest video analysis systems and surveillance technology, will cost almost €300 million over the next three years.

An additional 2,000 officers have not yet been included in the budget.

France and Germany have also said they will be boosting their security services after the deadly attacks in Paris ten days ago which killed 130 people.

Mikl-Leitner said the focus will be on strengthening state security, the Federal Criminal Office, and the special forces. “The fight against terror is one which our specialists must take up against these criminals and murderers,” she said.

Special forces officers will be equipped with new machine guns, sniper rifles and target devices to help detect targets at long distances and in poor visibility. They will also be issued with a full body armour, including lightweight protective vests, helmets and shields.

Armoured limousines and paramilitary transport vehicles will also be purchased, as a way of defending special forces from terrorists equipped with powerful assault rifles and anti-tank weapons.

Austrian companies may stand to profit from this – a Carinthian company sells armoured limousines made by Audi, BMW, Porsche and Mercedes. And a company in Tyrol makes paramilitary transport vehicles.

The news has been welcomed by the police, with police union chairman Hermann Greylinger saying “wonders will never cease, welcome back to reality, minister”.

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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