About 800 Islamist extremists who have returned from Syria or Iraq are preparing to launch attacks in Europe, counterterrorism officers in Spain warned yesterday.
The Spanish officers were referring to the number of jihadists residing on the Continent who have been recruited by Islamic State or groups affiliated to al-Qaeda.
Another 350 or so Britons have returned from fighting in the war zone, with security sources acknowledging that some are plotting attacks in the UK specifically.
The warnings come after Ayoub El Khazzani, 25, a Moroccan gunman, was overpowered on a high-speed train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday. He was said to be an “Islamist returner”, apparently having left France for Syria last year.
Upon his return, he attempted to carry out a massacre last week but was thwarted by six passengers, including three Americans and a British grandfather who overcame him as he opened fire.
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Counterterrorism sources quoted by Cadena Ser, a Spanish radio station, said that about 800 extremists on the Continent had been recruited by Islamic State or al-Qaeda-affiliated groups. They said that they were waiting for instructions from support networks to commit atrocities when the right opportunities arose.
They said that they believed El Khazzani had been armed and given instructions by others before boarding the train, and discounted his claim that he was only trying to carry out a robbery and was not a terrorist.
Anti-terrorist sources said they were tracking the movements of some of the 800 “returners”, but did not know the whereabouts of all of them. All have returned from conflict zones and are awaiting their opportunities to carry out a terrorist attack, the sources said.
“These people are not well trained, but they are poised and prepared to do anything. Once they have been indoctrinated, they receive the minimum training,” the radio station’s unnamed source said.
More than 700 Britons are thought to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to support or fight for jihadist organisations in the conflict. According to Scotland Yard, half of them have returned.
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Police and the security services are monitoring a fraction of the returnees, while others have been referred for action under Prevent, the counter-extremism strategy. Some are thought to be planning attacks in the UK, while some have encouraged others to go to the war zone, or raised funds for them.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the head of counterterrorism at Scotland Yard, said earlier this year that “significant numbers” of extremists influenced by Isis were staying here to plot attacks. The number of people arrested for Syria-linked terrorism offences rose by 560 per cent in 12 months. A total of 165 arrests were made across the country last year, compared with 25 in 2013.
The terrorist threat level remains at severe, meaning that an attack is highly likely.
Francisco Martínez, Spain’s security minister, said last week: “These young men are so quickly converted to support Islamic State, and in a few weeks they become fanatics. They go to war zones or they stay where they live and act like lone wolves.”
El Khazzani, who was being tracked by security services in Spain, France and Belgium before Friday’s attack, is believed to have taken a flight from Berlin to Istanbul in May and disappeared. It is believed that he travelled to Syria. Reports in the Spanish media suggested he had gone to see his brother, Imran, who is thought to be a religious cleric in Syria.
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The Belgian intelligence services have ruled out the possibility that El Khazzani was a “lone wolf” and are investigating his links to Islamist extremists in Belgium, who are thought to have helped to supply him with an AK-47 assault rifle and an automatic pistol.
Investigators suspect that he received support from Belgian jihadist groups linked to a terrorist cell that was broken up in January when two terrorists preparing to carry out attacks in the Belgian town of Verviers were shot dead.
According to French officials, El Khazzani had a newly activated mobile telephone to cover any links to others, indicating that he was a trained member of a wider terrorist cell or network.
“This telephone had no numbers, no contacts,” a French official told Le Parisien.“Using a mobile that is exclusively reserved for the day of the attack displays quite a professional character.”