Friday, January 16, 2015

16-Jan-15: Scenes from the warzones

Belgium [Image Source]
The past 24 hours in the ongoing war in Europe...

Verviers, Belgium last night: Two armed men, evidently Islamists with plans for launching terrorist attacks on Belgian targets, were shot dead and another wounded by security people from Belgium's federal police after opening fire with automatic weapons on Thursday evening. Belgium is now on high alert. BBC quotes officials saying the shooters were part of a group that had returned to Belgium from fighting in Syria "and planned imminent attacks on police targets". In a search of the terrorists' premises - a flat above a bakery (source) - four Kalashnikov guns, bomb-making equipment and police clothing were seized.

Brussels, Belgium last night (as well as nearby towns Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Anderlecht and Schaerbeek): Searches were carried out overnight by security personnel hunting for additional embedded Islamist terrorists.

Antwerp and Brussels, Belgium this morning: Jewish schools were closed "after they were informed that they could be potential targets" according to the BBC quoting the Belgian newspaper Joods Actueel.

Zaventem, Belgium: Two Islamists suspected of involvement in acts of terrorism or planning them were arrested Thursday (source).

Across western EuropeCNN has a breaking report today "that the ongoing terror threat appears to involve up to 20 sleeper cells of between 120 to 180 people ready to strike in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. The source said that European Union and Middle East intelligence agencies identified an "imminent threat" to Belgium, possibly also to the Netherlands."

Montrouge, France: The suburban Paris apartment, rented on a short-term basis by Amedy Coulibaly, the jihadist killer who seized a kosher grocery store in Paris last Friday and cold-bloodedly murdered four of the unarmed Jews on the premises, turns out to have been an armaments repository. French police yesterday showed what they found there: "four Tokarev pistols similar to a pair found at the store, a revolver, and sticks of dynamite... mobile telephones, tear gas grenades, a flak jacket, binoculars, a flag similar to the ones used by the Islamic State (Isil), a copy of the Koran and a car rooftop beacon similar to those used by police" (source). Many thousands of Euros were spent in accmulating what the young thug had there.

Berlin, Germany: Overnight raids on Thursday/Friday by German security personnel involving "250 officers and three Special Operations commands carried out the raids on 11 homes" resulted "in the arrest a pair of Turkish men for planning a terrorist attack on Friday", (source)

More coming.

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