revistaieee7

Alberto Caballero Díez
European foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq:...
Figure 2 – Countries by ratio returnee / monitored.
A secondary research question this study tries to find an answer for is about
the most likely sort of targets that returnees could attack. From the data collected
about the plots executed by returnees it is possible to deduce that the targets
they have chosen so far are diverse, but those with an anti-Semitic component
prevailed. The bloodiest independent attack, carried out by Mehdi Nemmouche,
was against the Jewish Museum of Belgium. Ibrahim Boudina, who was
arrested in France, considered where he lived as a ‘Zionist area’ that he could
attack, which implies that he would have probably chosen a Jewish place as objective.
Nonetheless, not all the plots were planned against Jews. Redouani Hagaoui
and Tarik Jadaon, arrested in Belgium, had prepared an imminent attack
to kill police officers. The Thalys train attack took place in a train heading to
Paris. Despite this attack failed because the jihadist’s rifle jammed and passengers
subdued him, it gives an idea about how serious is the threat that some
returnees pose. It is unclear whether or not the attacker had previous training
in the handling of weapons because he probably stayed less than two months in
Syria. What seems to be clear is that the attack could have been a mass murder
with dozens maybe hundreds of deaths (the train was not in a station) if it was
executed by a group of terrorists coordinated and well equipped. Finally, the
November 2015 Paris attacks showed that terrorists can strike almost anywhere.
In any case, the most likely scenarios of attack continue to be Jewish places and
also satirical artists that publish on Muhammad, as they have been target in
plenty of attacks such as the Charlie Hebdo shooting. Both France and Belgium
are already protecting public Jewish places.
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