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Germany Must Expect Attacks at ‘Any Time’

Germany is currently monitoring some 680 radicals who could potentially carry out an attack.
Germany is currently monitoring some 680 radicals who could potentially carry out an attack.

Germany is likely to see more terrorist attacks conducted by extremists, the country’s domestic intelligence chief has said while presenting an annual report which analyses threats to the state from all forms of extremism, RT reported.

 “We must expect further attacks by individuals or terror groups,” the Bundesamt fur Verfassungsschutz (BfV) chief, Hans-Georg Maassen said Tuesday. “terrorism is the biggest challenge facing the BfV and we see it as one of the biggest threats facing the internal security of Germany.”

The statement followed the agency publishing its annual report on constitution protection and threats to the state. It said some 24,400 extremists remain in Germany, including around 10,000 Salafists, an ultra-conservative movement within Sunni Islam, followers of which have been prone to terrorism.

“The attacks have substantiated the IS threat scenario in Germany. IS can be held responsible for all attacks mounted in Germany in 2016,” the report reads. “Germany is the focus of terrorism. Terrorist incidents are possible in Germany at any time in the future.”

Maassen said terrorists managed to carry out five attacks in 2016 while security services thwarted another seven.

The report classified the 2016 attacks in Germany as part of what has been termed, “phenomenon of the individual jihad,” acts which are committed by individuals or “micro groups.”

Germany is currently monitoring some 680 radicals who could potentially carry out an attack, according to Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

The intelligent assessment said young people remain vulnerable to terrorist recruitment schemes as the youth “are particularly susceptible to radicalism propaganda, especially spread via social media.”

The report noted that the younger generation can easily be indoctrinated to “develop a readiness to consequently obey the order to kill unbelievers.”

New potential terrorists “possibly entering Europe under cover as part of the migration movement” as well as those returning from war zones in Syria and Iraq, remain under the radar of the security agencies, the report notes.

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