Terrorist groups to exhaust security, spread terror in Europe

Mustafa Kamel

A fourth letter bomb found within a two-day period in separate locations across the Netherlands has exploded in Amsterdam in the latest wave of threats by terrorist and extremist groups.

The first parcel exploded in the westside of the Dutch capital of Amsterdam in a company on the Sloterdijk-terrain. The other bomb one caused a small explosion in a mail sorting company in the municipality of Kerkrade in the Dutch Limburg province.

The book, “Management of Savagery” by Abu Bakr Naji, revealed the existence of a stage called “the thorn of annoyance and exhaustion”, that terrorist organizations must seek to open the door for their fighters to cross into Western countries to carry out terrorist operations. Pointing out that this stage must be preceded by the formation of separate groups and cells in all regions of the world to cause expected chaos in many regions of the major selected countries.

In 2010, al-Qaeda threatened to used parcel bombs to spread terror in western countries and paralyze their economy, as it declared plotting more “small attacks”, like the parcel bomb sent from Yemen to the US.

The Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the plot to send parcel bombs to the United States and for the September 2010 downing of a UPS cargo plane.

The group posted the message on “jihadist” web forums, and called for more explosive parcels to “enlarge the circle of its application to include civilian aircraft in the West as well as cargo aircraft,” the monitoring website SITE said.

In October 2020, two packages addressed to synagogues in Chicago containing the hard-to-detect explosive PETN hidden in printer ink cartridges were uncovered in Dubai and Britain’s East Midlands Airport, sparking a global scare.

French officials said on Thursday that British anti-terror police had disarmed one of the bombs just 17 minutes before it was due to detonate.

Vowing to bleed its enemy to death by “a thousand cuts,” ‘Inspire’, the English-language online magazine of al-Qaeda in Yemen, dedicates its latest issue to the plot, which it calls “Operation Hemorrhage.”

“The operation has succeeded in achieving its objectives. We thank Allah for His blessings,” says the magazine, adding the cost of sending the parcel bombs was just $4,200.

Inspire says the strategy raises the cost of security in target countries, particularly the US, putting a further drag on an already weakened economy.