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TERRORISM

UK warns terrorists ‘very likely to try and carry out attacks in Sweden’

Foreign travel advice recently published by the British government has stated that "attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by foreigners".

UK warns terrorists 'very likely to try and carry out attacks in Sweden'
Tourists stand by the Royal Castle in front of a Royal guard in Stockholm in 2010. Photo: OLIVIER MORIN/AFP.

Travel advice published by the British government has warned that “terrorists are very likely to try and carry out attacks in Sweden,” and that the “attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by foreigners.”

According to Foreign Office advice on the British government Gov UK website, updated on August 13th, “the authorities in Sweden have successfully disrupted a number of planned attacks and made a number of arrests.”

READ ALSO: ‘Risks have increased’: Sweden ups terrorism readiness after Quran protests

Though the British Foreign Office warns of a “heightened threat of terrorist attacks globally against UK interests and British nationals from groups or individuals motivated by the conflict in Iraq and Syria,” ongoing tensions in Swedish society with regards to recent Quran burning incidents may also make attempted terror attacks more likely.

Sweden’s government says it has no plans to extend its hate law to include an explicit ban on burning or desecrating the Quran.

Over 850,000 British citizens visit Sweden every year, according to Swedish government statistics.

The Swedish police state on its official website that: “The terrorist threat level in Sweden is currently at a level 3, ‘elevated threat’. This means that an attack could happen.”

Sweden’s national security advisor, Henrik Landerholm, said in a statement the “the security situation has deteriorated and Sweden has gone from being a legitimate to a priority target.”

“The government and responsible authorities are following developments,” he added.

Landerholm also suggested that controversy surrounding the Quran burnings “indicate that the threat to Swedish interests abroad has increased. Representatives of terrorist groups have called for attacks against Sweden. States, but also other actors, have contributed to fueling such messages.”

The change in UK Foreign Office advice follows a similar move from the US Embassy earlier in 2023, published in a notice on the US embassy’s homepage.

“US citizens are advised to use caution when going to public venues frequented by large numbers of people. Gathering sites such as places of worship could be targeted. Please use caution when in, and around, all diplomatic facilities. Report suspicious activity to the relevant authorities,” the notice read.

Crime

The British government advice also includes information on more general crime risks in Sweden.

According to its updated travel advice, “crime levels are low although there is some petty crime,” in Sweden. Like in many countries, however, “pickpocketing can be a problem in the major cities when tourists are targeted for passports and cash.”

However, the Gov UK page does also note that in Sweden “violent crime does occur; instances of gang related crime, including knife crime, shootings and explosions, have been reported in Malmö, Stockholm and Gothenburg.”

READ ALSO: Lethal violence in Sweden at highest level in nearly 20 years: report

Sweden last year suffered the highest level of murder and manslaughter for at least 18 years, with 124 people losing their lives through violent attacks, according to the latest annual report from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå).

Member comments

  1. All over the burning of a holy book. Is anyone considering how this looks against a demographic? This is yet more fuel to power the Sweden Democrats, something we do NOT want to happen.

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TERRORISM

US designates Nordic far-right group as terrorists

The United States on Friday designated the Nordic Resistance Movement and three of its leaders terrorists, saying the Scandinavian neo-Nazis pose a threat to Americans.

US designates Nordic far-right group as terrorists

The State Department added the movement and the leaders to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list, meaning that any US-based assets will be frozen and that they will be blocked from using the US financial system.

The State Department said it made its finding based on the group’s history of violence rooted in “its openly racist, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, anti-LGBTQI+ platform.”

“The United States remains deeply concerned about the racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist threat worldwide and is committed to countering the transnational components of violent white supremacy,” a State Department statement said.

The group has carried out or attempted to carry out “acts of terrorism that threaten the security of United States nationals or the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States,” it said.

The leaders blacklisted by the State Department, all Swedes, were group’s chief Fredrik Vejdeland, and two other senior figures, Par Oberg and Leif Robert Eklund.

The group, known by its Swedish acronym NMR, professes Nazism and seeks a united “ethnic Nordic” nation.

Founded in 1997 in Sweden as the Swedish Resistance Movement, it saw sister organisations spring up in other Nordic countries until they were united under NMR in 2016.

The group stages protests and produces media arguing against immigration, but has also been linked to violence.

In 2016, a 28-year old man died after being assaulted by NMR members in Helsinki and, according to watchdog organisation Expo, several members have been convicted of a series of bombings in Gothenburg in 2016 and 2017.

Finland’s Supreme Court banned the group in 2020.

After taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden’s administration laid out a strategy to counter domestic terrorism that included identifying foreign groups that provide support.

The State Department first designated a white supremacist group as terrorists in 2020 — the Russian Imperial Movement — after years of largely targeting Islamist and far-left movements overseas.

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