2015-06-27 We have argued earlier that a Euro-Med region has emerged which has virtually become a single defense and security operational area.
The terrorists certainly think so.
In a piece published recently by our partner Rivista Italiana Difesa, Pietro Batacchi looks at recent events.
Terrorism has returned to strike with renewed vigor (in the Euro-Med region).
First in France, where two men in a car detonated a cylinder in a gas plant near Lyon and beheaded a person to Kuwait, where a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Shiite mosque, killing 16 people, and next in Tunisia where there was an attack on two luxury resorts in Sousse on the Gulf of Hammamet.
There are at least 30 victims.
It is unclear whether the episodes of Lyon and Sousse are connected, surely, however, the timing and the almost simultaneous arouses suspicion, while the dynamics of the attack in Kuwait is that the Shia-Sunni sectarianism that has always affected the Arabian Peninsula.
Moreover, France and Tunisia for months have been targeted by ISIS groups and al-Qaeda after the attacks in Paris and the Museum of Bardo.
France, like all European countries, is facing the threat of so-called foreign fighters. To date it is estimated that a thousand French citizens have left to fight in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Mali, and have been among the ranks of jihadist groups such ISIL, al-Nusra Front, Ansar al-Sharia, or Ansar al-Dine…..
More generally, the problem of foreign fighters is far from being solved despite the measures taken recently by most European governments.
Tunisia is another country in the forefront today. The country is fragile and is exposed to the instability emanating from neighboring Libya and the Sahel.
A significant part of the south and west is in the hands of terrorist groups and is used as a corridor for arms trafficking and the passage of militants from Libya to Algeria, to the north of Mali.
The joint efforts made in recent months with Algeria does not seem to be enough.
For several months, elements of ISIS from Libya have infiltrated Tunisia as well.
There are at least 300-400 followers of the Caliphate in Tunisia that are intensifying propaganda activities, especially among the younger generation.
They are trying to replicate their strategy already implemented successfully in Libya to promote divisions in groups like al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia and Uqba ibn Nafi Brigade…
(In short, Europe is not only facing) a problem of stability in North Africa not just caused by the issue of immigration.
http://www.rid.it/index~phppag,3_id,730.html
Published by our partner Rivista Italiana Difesa on June 26, 2015.
Translation by Second Line of Defense.