New wave of terrorist attacks ‘possible’, UN warns

Ahmed Lamlom

A United Nations report has warned has warned that a recent pause in international terrorist violence may soon end, with a new wave of attacks possible before the end of the year.

In a report, specialist monitors at the UN Security Council paint a worrying picture of a global Islamist extremist movement that continues to pose a significant threat despite recent setbacks.

The authors raise concerns about up to 30,000 foreigners who travelled to the “caliphate” to fight and who may still be alive.

“Their future prospects will be of international concern for the foreseeable future,” the report says. “Some may join al-Qaida or other terrorist brands that may emerge. Some will become leaders or radicalizers.”

The report is based on information supplied by intelligence agencies of UN member states, and provides a glimpse of collective thinking among security services around the world.

It notes that, though the geographical caliphate of Daesh has ceased to exist, member states agree many of the underlying factors that gave rise to Daesh still exist, which suggests that the threat from it and al-Qaida, or similar groups is unlikely to decline further.

Though there have been fewer successful attacks since 2015 and 2016, when extremists killed hundreds of people in France, Belgium and Germany, the threat to Europe “remains high”.

A major concern is the radicalization of prison “inmates afflicted by poverty, marginalization, frustration, low self-esteem and violence”.

The report further warned that European states estimate that as many as 6,000 of their citizens travelled to Iraq and Syria to join Daesh or other extremist groups. About a third were killed, while another third remain detained in the region or have travelled elsewhere.

Two thousand or more may have returned to Europe, the report says.

The challenge posed by dependents of foreign terrorist fighters living in overcrowded displacement camps in Syria where US-backed militia are holding thousands of militants and their family members is also significant.

Hassan Aboutaleb, an expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, says that many of the factors that have given terrorist organizations momentum still exist. He further added that dealing with terrorists requires long-term plans and close cooperation between all international parties and sharing data and information that each party possesses with others.

Aboutaleb told The Reference in an interview that some parties took advantage of terrorist groups to achieve political gains, not to mention that some states deal with individuals from these groups for common interests, which makes the plan to eliminate terrorism harder.

With regard to the communication of terrorist groups with each other, the researcher at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies considers that whether there is cooperation or rivalry between Daesh and al-Qaeda, this should not concern politicians much, because both organizations execute operations that claim the lives of innocent people.