Deadly terror attacks on the rise in Europe

  • 13/07/2017
Police guard Westminster Bridge after an attack earlier this year.
Police guard Westminster Bridge after an attack earlier this year. Photo credit: Getty

The number of terrorist attacks resulting in fatalities in western Europe increased in 2016, despite an overall drop in the number of incidents taking place, according to data released by the Global Terrorism Database.

The data shows that there were 30 such attacks resulting in fatalities in western Europe in 2016 and 23 in 2015. This compares with two attacks across the region resulting in fatalities in 2014 and five in 2013.

In addition, terrorist attacks have become more deadly, with 26.5 people on average being killed in 2015 and 2016, up from an average of four a year in the preceding three years.

The deadliest incident recorded in western Europe was the series of coordinated attacks on Paris in November 2015 that resulted in the deaths of 130 people and was claimed by Islamic State.

Experts said Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS), responsible for seven of the 10 deadliest attacks since 2012, was increasingly encouraging the use of knives and vehicles over firearms and explosives by their followers.

"It's very different to the al-Qaeda threat, which was obsessed with mass casualties, bringing down airliners", Dr Sajjan Gohel, International Security Director with the Asia-Pacific Foundation think tank told Reuters.

"What ISIS is trying to do is have a greater volume of attacks, but make it more cost effective and simpler."

Report kept secret

The British government will not publish in full its report on the sources of funding of Islamist extremism in Britain, prompting opposition charges it is trying to protect its ally Saudi Arabia.

The report, commissioned by former Prime Minister David Cameron in November 2015, was handed to the government last year and ministers have been under pressure to release its findings following three deadly attacks in Britain since March which have been blamed on Islamists.

But Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Wednesday said though some extremist Islamist organisations were receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds she had decided against publishing the review in full.

"This is because of the volume of personal information it contains and for national security reasons," she said in a written statement to parliament.

The review found the most common source of support for these organisations was from small, anonymous donations from people based in Britain, Ms Rudd said.

But it also found overseas funding was a significant source of income for a small number of organisations.

"Overseas support has allowed individuals to study at institutions that teach deeply conservative forms of Islam and provide highly socially conservative literature and preachers to the UK's Islamic institutions," Ms Rudd's statement said. "Some of these individuals have since become of extremist concern."

Critics were quick to see a cover-up to shield Saudi Arabia, a powerful Gulf ally of Britain.

Britain's Henry Jackson Society think tank last week released a report which said foreign funding for Islamist extremism in Britain primarily came from governments and government-linked foundations in the Gulf, as well as Iran.

"Foremost among these has been Saudi Arabia, which since the 1960s has sponsored a multimillion dollar effort to export Wahhabi Islam across the Islamic world, including to Muslim communities in the West," the report said.

After an attack by three Islamists on London Bridge last month in which eight people were killed, opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Britain needed to have "some difficult conversations" with its ally Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

Reuters