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TERRORISM

Terrorist link to Greece after Austrian arrests

Two suicide bombers who died in the Paris attacks and two men held in Austria for suspected links to the operation were all processed as migrants on a Greek island on the same day, a source close to the probe told AFP.

Terrorist link to Greece after Austrian arrests
Photos at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport show wanted terrorists Salah Abdeslam (L) and Mohamed Abrini. File photo: AFP

Two suspects in the November 13 attacks were arrested over the weekend at a refugee centre in the western city of Salzburg after a tip-off from French police, said a separate source in Austria.

The Austrian source said the men were Algerian and Pakistani.

Fingerprint analysis has shown the suspects were processed among migrants arriving on the Greek island of Leros on October 3, according to a French source close to the investigation.

Two of the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside the French national stadium on the night of the attacks were processed on Leros on the same day, the source said.

The Stade de France bombings kicked off a night of horror in the French capital as jihadists hit a series of nightspots, killing 130 people and injuring 350.

Seven attackers blew themselves up or were killed by police in the course of the evening, five of whom have been identified.

The two unidentified Stade de France attackers have been tracked back to two fake Syrian passports used to enter Europe.

A suspected ringleader of the attacks, Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid a few days later and suspected accomplices have been arrested in Belgium and Austria.

Another jihadist, Salah Abdeslam, who was believed to have played a key logistical role in the attacks, has evaded police across Europe who have been hunting for him.

A French police source said Abdeslam may have had links to the two men arrested in Austria, which he is known to have visited on September 9.

According to Austrian authorities, he was pulled over in a routine traffic check on his way from Hungary to Germany. With him in the car, which had Belgian number plates, were two unidentified men. They were all allowed to continue on their way.

The Salzburger Nachrichten daily on Thursday said investigators have reconstructed Abdeslam's journey in his hired Mercedes thanks to the car's anti-theft tracking device.

The paper said he drove through Austria to the Hungarian-Serbian border, and was pulled over again on the return leg of the journey — this time by police in the southern German state of Bavaria.

It said he picked up two men in Hungary — Soufiane K. and Samir R. — and that both had fake Belgian passports.

Earlier this month, French sources said Abdeslam was in Hungary on September 17, meaning he may have made several trips in the run-up to the attacks.

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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