Just recently, the UK National Security Minister, Ben Wallace, told The Sunday Times that ISIS is plotting to carry out “mass casualty” chemical weapons attacks against Britain. According to Wallace, although there’s specific information available about the possible attacks, it’s clear that ISIS will try to to maximize the number of victims in such an attack.Wallace recalled that earlier ISIS militants used poisonous gas in Iraq and Syria. “They have no moral objection to using chemical weapons … and if they could, they would in this country, “he added.
Even a brief look at the recent speeches made by Ben Wallace manifest the fact that there’s an increased danger of new terrorists attacks committed with the use of prohibited weapons, especially against the background of a significant number of European jihadists returning home after participating in the military conflicts in Syria and Iraq. According to Wallace at least 800 British citizens were fighting for radical militants in the Middle East, while only 10% of them were deceased in the fighting.
A month earlier, the CIA director, John Brennan was warning the world about the risk of new terrorist attack being committed with the use of toxic substances, that would remind the 1995 gas attack in the Tokyo subway, where sarin gas was used. He added that under these conditions it is important to take all possible measures to prevent the delivery of poisonous substances to Europe.
Just recently Morocco’s head of counter-terrorism, Abdelhak Khiame, confined in his interview with The Sun that his agents had smashed a plot to use mustard gas in a terrorist attacks, while uncovering a terrorist chain that had created a toxin so lethal it would be fatal even if touched. According to Khiame, his agents have eliminated more that 25 ISIS sleeping cells last year alone in Morocco, which resulted in the discovery of stockpiles of mustard gas containers. As it turned out later, the group was planning to launch chemical attacks in four Moroccan cities.
According to Abdelhak Khiame, ISIS has trained brigades of children and was looking to use them in terrorist attacks in Europe. As for chemical weapons, ISIS doesn’t seem to have any problems in creating them. What sounds really disturbing is that the substances used in the plot that was dismantled by Morocco’s secret services in February are easily available in shops all over Europe.
Earlier, the Pentagon confirmed that US special forces captured ISIS’ leading expert on the development of chemical weapons for this terrorist group.
The fact that such warnings should be taken extremely seriously has recently been highlighted by the Daily Mail, that would report that an ex-NATO soldier Lavdrim Muhaxheri has recently returned to Europe with at least 400 loyal fighters. The media sources reported, while citing an unnamed source in the Italian intelligence services, that hose fighters have disguised themselves as refugees in order to cross borders and get into Europe without being identified. The Daily Mail also notes that the Balkans are being swarmed by terrorists, the majority of whom are unable to enter the territory of other states without being identified.
Under these conditions, there’s little doubt that the fight against terrorism must be a common effort, and one cannot ignore the possibility to seek cooperation with Russia in that matter, which has a pretty impressive experience in dealing with terrorist threats and has a long list of specialists trained for the job. But in order to do this one would be forced to stop spreading Russophobia in Europe, which has been promoted in the West by the Obama administration in vain hopes of reducing the growing Russian influence in the world.
Grete Mautner is an indepenent researcher and journalist from Germany, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
