Commando-Style Terror Plot Targeted Europe

29 September 2010

French policemen patrol in the Saint-Lazare railway station in Paris as people come back after having been evacuated for a false bomb alert, 27 Sep 2010

Sally Leivesley, a security advisor based in Britain, said, "The potential for three countries - France, Germany, and Britain - to be attacked simultaneously is actually a global shock attack and it comes out of the maturity in the style of attacks that Pakistan has very sadly been having for a long time, and also that the soldiers are seeing in Afghanistan."

Officials in the United States and Europe have so far refused to confirm the report on record. U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr. has said that the U.S. has shared intelligence with Europe in recent days and is working with its allies to combat international terrorism.

Reports by the British media say well-armed jihadists planned to attack major European cities in a manner similar to the attack against Mumbai in 2008. In that attack, ten gunmen killed 166 people in a three-day assault on India's most populated city.

Tobias Feakin is Director of National Security & Resilience at the Royal United Services Institute. He said the nature of terrorism is changing. In the past, terrorist organizations planned high impact explosive attacks on high-security targets, such as the airline industry. He said an attack like that against Mumbai is different.