Young children in the UK are to be taught what to do during a Islamic terror attack with a picture book featuring animals, like reported by thenational.ae.

‘Moggy’s Coming’ is a children’s guide on how to deal with the threat of a terror attack. It aims to teach children how to behave and how best to help if there is an active gunman or knife attacker or a suspected or exploded bomb.

The book, which follows a school of mice preparing in case of a cat attack, is to be introduced across schools in the UK and is aimed at primary school children aged 5 to 11.

The e-book has been developed by CitizenAID, who created the book alongside other materials with the intention to try to help prepare parents and teachers for the “unlikely but not impossible chance of being caught up in a deliberate attack”, according to the company’s website.

CitizenAID produced the book with the belief that it is vital to equip children with the abilities to respond appropriately to potential terror attacks.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained members of a terrorist group who have been plotting suicide bomber attacks in Moscow.

According to the FSB, the terrorist attacks were being prepared under the guidance of a Daesh emissary from Syria.

Those detained plotted terrorist attacks on Moscow’s transport infrastructure and large marketplaces, the FSB said.

“The actions of a terrorist group which intended to carry out a series of terrorist attacks in crowded places, including on transport objects and large shopping areas of Moscow with the use of terrorist suicide attackers and powerful explosives were foiled in the Moscow region.”

A laboratory for the production of explosives, IEDs have been found and neutralized on Moscow’s outskirts during a special operation.

The group of terrorists detained in the Moscow region comprises 3 nationals of Central Asian states and 1 Russian national.

Later in the day, it became known thar the group included one Russian citizen and three Tajik nationals. A Moscow court has so far authorized arrests for three of the four suspects, all of whom will remain in custody until October 11. All of those three suspects are from Tajikistan. Two of them have admitted their guilt. The FSB has not released any information about the fourth suspect.

Last week, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov, who chairs Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee (NAC) said that the threat from international terrorist groups, including Daesh, and North Caucasus armed gangs, remains in crowded places. Bortnikov made the statement at a meeting of the committee on counterterrorism protection of facilities and crowded places, facilities of Russian transport infrastructure and measures to improve it.

An 18-year-old Moroccan man killed two women and wounding eight other people in a knife attack in Finland has been named by a court as Abderrahman Mechkah.

The crimes are being treated as murder and attempted murder with terrorist intent.

Police have requested that Mechkah, who is in hospital, be detained during preliminary investigations. They said he may appear in court on Tuesday via video link from hospital.

The suspect arrived in Finland in 2016 and was an asylum seeker, police said. He was shot in the leg and arrested shortly after the attack on Friday.

The two people killed were Finnish; a British man, two Swedes and one Italian were among those injured in the attack in Turku, on the Baltic coast, 90 miles (145km) west of Helsinki.

The assailant appeared to have targeted women, police have said. Both of those killed were women, as were six of the eight wounded, including one who was reported to have been with her baby.

Four other Moroccan nationals have been arrested.

The British man was stabbed repeatedly while he helped victims of the attack. Paramedic Hassan Zubier, 45, who was born in Dartford Kent, denied being a hero, insisting he was merely following his training.

A Spanish newspaper revealed that Qatar financed centers of Islamic worship and mosques in Spain, particularly in the province of Catalonia, where the terrorist attacks happened, like reported by alarabiya.net.

The newspaper said in its report that Doha supports the places of worship there through wealthy businessmen, which lead to the growth of the phenomenon of extremism in Spain.

The Barcelona attack, which was adopted by ISIS organization, recalls to mind earlier discussions related to the funding of mosques frequented by extremists in Europe and its relation to terrorist attacks that claimed innocent lives.

A report published in the Spanish newspaper “La Razón” exposed the funds coming from abroad, especially from Doha to centers of worship in Spain in Catalonia, which became, according to the newspaper, a stronghold of extremism and terrorism.

Islamic centers and mosques have been under Spanish security control for years since it started receiving funding from Qatar through wealthy businessmen, the report said.

The data indicate that seven percent of Muslims in Spain, estimated at two and a half million people are based in Catalonia.

Spain has more than 1,260 Islamic worship centers, of which 256 are in Catalonia alone, where the highest numbers of immigrants live.

The imam believed to be the ringleader of the Spain attackers had links with the 2004 Madrid bombers and recently travelled to Belgium, it has emerged, like reported by independent.co.uk.

Investigators are piecing together the background of Isis supporters who launched two deadly attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils as the driver of the van used to kill 13 people remains at large.

Police say they cannot rule out the possibility that Younes Abouyaaquoub, a 22-year-old Moroccan who could be the only surviving member of the terror cell, has escaped into France and travelled onwards through Europe.

The investigation into the attacks has spread to several countries recently visited by attackers, including Morocco, France and Switzerland.

Belgian media reported that the suspected ringleader of the attack, Moroccan imam Abdelbaki Es Satty, spent at least three months in the country.

The mayor of Vilvoorde, once a notorious jihadi hub, confirmed Es Satty lived in the city from January to March 2016 – the month that saw Isis’ attacks launched in nearby Brussels – but the Belgian immigration minister said he was not registered with authorities.

Hans Bonte said Es Satty attempted to work at mosques in the city but was refused by community members who reported his arrival to the police.

Belgian authorities said they contacted their Catalan counterparts for information but were told he was not known to be radicalised, De Redactie reported.

The imam is not believed to have been under surveillance by Spanish security services, despite his apparent extremist connections following a period in prison in 2012.

Acquaintances of Es Satty said he was not religious until being jailed for smuggling hashish and meeting Rachid Aglif, who was serving time for his part in the al-Qaeda inspired Madrid bombings.

In 2015 he started teaching at a mosque in Ripoll, the quiet Spanish town home to most of the Spain attackers.

Friends and relatives said the plotters, including a waiter and extreme sports instructor, appeared to lead normal lives until they started attending Es Satty’s sermons.

A woman who knew members of the cell said the imam repeatedly preached about jihad and killing “infidels”, adding: “I feel like I could have done something. I feel a little bit guilty now.

“Everybody knew it. It was an open secret. But I can’t say it because these people are dangerous and they could come after me. I don’t trust anybody now.”

Leaders of Es Satty’s former mosque denounced the terror attacks, but denied the preacher was anything other than “a normal imam”.

At least three sets of brothers and cousins were among the cell’s alleged members – a pattern previously seen among large groups of European foreign fighters joining Isis in Syria and in terror attacks including Paris, Brussels and Boston.

Only one, suspected van driver Abouyaaqoub, is known to remain alive after fleeing from the scene of the rampage that left 13 people dead and more than 100 injured on La Rambla.

Family members told Reuters that Abouyaaqoub started showing more religiously conservative behaviour within the past year, refusing to shake hands with women during a visit to his birthplace in Morocco in March.

They expressed shock and anger after discovering his alleged involvement in the Barcelona attack, with his mother, Hannou Ghanimi, telling reporters in she wanted her son to give himself up to police and would rather see him in prison than dead.

His brother, El Houssaine, and first cousins Mohamed and Omar Hichami were killed alongside Moussa Oukabir and Said Aalla by police in the second ramming attack in the resort town of Cambrils.

Es Satty was one of at least two plotters killed in an accidental explosion that destroyed a house they were using as a bomb factory in Alcanar on Wednesday night.

There are reports that possible bomb maker Youssef Aalla may have died in the explosion that wounded fellow plotter Mohamed Chemlal.

He has been detained alongside Driss Oukabir, Mohammed Aalla and Salh el Karib.

Police said traces of the volatile explosive TATP, used in Isis’ Manchester, Paris and Brussels attacks, was found alongside around 120 bottles of gas in the ruins in Alcanar.

Josep Lluis Trapero, the head of Catalonia’s police force, said the original plan to create huge vehicle bombs was foiled by the accidental blast, which rushed plotters into “rudimentary” assaults the following day.

“Our thesis is that the group had planned one or more attacks with explosives in the city of Barcelona,” Mr Trapero said.

He would not confirm that Abouyaaquoub was behind the wheel in Barcelona but confirmed that officials did not know where he or the driver are.

Asked whether Abouyaaquoub could have crossed into France, he replied: ”We don’t have any specific information on this but it cannot be ruled out.”

It would not be the first time a terrorist has managed to flee across borders in the immediate aftermath of an attack.

Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam was driven through a police checkpoint into Belgium on the night of Isis’ November 2015 massacres, while Berlin attacker Anis Amri managed to reach Italybefore being shot dead by police.

Carles Puigdemont, the head of the Catalan government, denied reports that the CIA warned local police that Barcelona could be Isis’ next target.

Catalonia has become increasingly known as a centre of extremism, with almost one third of Isis-linked arrests in Spain made there, according to an analysis by a Spanish think tank.

A 2007 cable from the US State Department warned of the risk of radicalisation in Catalonia and called for a regional counter-terror hub to be set up in Barcelona.

The missive, which was later published by Wikileaks, said Spanish and American authorities had identified the region as a “major Mediterranean centre of radical Islamist activity” that had become a “magnet for terrorist recruiters”.

Officials said Catalonia housed al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam recruiters, as well as a terror cell including an unnamed imam arrested earlier that year.

The State Department cited men with a North African background at particular risk for radicalisation in “circumstances would provide fertile ground for terrorist recruitment”, adding: “The threat is clear.”

The cable described Catalonia as “a prime base of operations for terrorist activity” but claimed Spanish authorities had little intelligence on or ability to penetrate the groups.

Questions remain over how the cell of more than a dozen plotters were able to plan multiple and sophisticated terror attacks without detection, and on the extent of Isis’ involvement in the massacres.

Terrorism expert says lax travel laws enable terrorists to plan attacks, move from country to country easily with EU passports, like reported by inn.com

Dr. Amira Halperin, an expert on terrorism at the Middle East department at Hebrew University, spoke with Arutz Sheva about the rise of the ISIS terrorist organization in Europe following the deadly ramming attack in Barcelona last week.

“ISIS is the head of the snake, and it can’t be cut off,” Dr. Halperin said. “They may be beaten in Syria and Iraq, but their ability to reach the West is great. They recruit the sons of immigrants and radical Islamists who were born in Europe. ISIS mobilizes them through incitement, telling them to fight the coalition nations.”

According to Dr. Halperin, the planning of Islamist terrorist attacks in Europe is facilitated by the ease of travel to and between European states. “It was just now published that the terrorist in Spain had been in Morocco for a short time and then returned to Spain. The same extremist groups operate in Morocco which train [the European terrorists].”

She expressed hope that European intelligence agencies will be able to track down potential terrorists in the future.

“In Europe they understand that they have become a terrorist target, even in light of the fact that there are Jewish communities there [which the terrorists might have targeted instead].

“There is incitement in the European mosques, and they are recruiting some young Islamists who are are the children of immigrants who were themselves involved in terrorism and found asylum,” she said. “European intelligence follows the activities of those young people, some of whom have nothing to lose. They also join [ISIS] for financial and personal reasons.”

“These young people are very familiar with the places where they can cause harm, and they are able to travel from country to country the a European passport.”

The Islamic State terror group has used a network of companies operating out of Wales in the UK to finance terror plots, including the recent attacks in Spain, like reported by business-standard.com.

In an incident in Barcelona, a white van sped down the popular Las Ramblas avenue packed full of tourists on August 17, knocking people down and killing 13.

Several people have been stabbed in an attack in the Finnish city of Turku, police have said.

Members of the public have been warned to stay away from the city centre as they reinforced security around the country.

Police said they arrested one person after a shootout and had launched a manhunt for other possible attackers.

The Turun Sanomat newspaper reported that at least one person was killed in the attack and that police were inspecting departing trains and buses.

MTV3 television reported that police have raised security at Helsinki airport and at train stations.

An eyewitness saw four or five ambulances near the city’s main square, the paper said.

“The government is closely following the events in Turku andthe ongoing police operation. The government will meet later today,” Prime Minister Juha Sipila wrote on his Twitter account.

Islamic State militants are vowing more drive-through attacks in Europe and the United States through an internal declaration circulated in Kirkuk province, a security source said Friday according to iraqinews.com.

Alsumaria news quoted the source saying that Islamic State preachers had given out a text sermon in Hawija, the group’s largest haven in southwestern kirkuk, threatening the United States and Europe with more attacks by “the spurred horses” that “hit infidel masses”, in a reference to vehicles operated by group-affiliated attackers who have driven through street gatherings in Europe and the United States over the past months, killing and injuring many.

The circulated bulletin said “foreign elements and cells had been formed to target gatherings and vital commercial centers at those countries” in response to “strikes by the alliance of infidels and apostates on the Caliphate’s locations,” as the text quoted by the source put it.

The report comes a few hours after at least 13 were killed in central Barcelona when a driver rammed into a crowd of civilians on Thursday in Las Ramblas.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack after Spanish authorities had already said they were dealing with the incident as a terrorist attack.

The group had also been behind several attacks over the past years which followed its 2014 declaration of a self-styled “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria.

A military alliance of more than 60 countries, led by the United States, has been waging airstrikes and ground offensives against IS locations in Iraq and Syria.

Despite its (relatively) low body count and primitive execution, Thursday’s terrorist attack in Barcelona shocked many local and international onlookers. The Islamic State (IS) group was quick to claim responsibility for the attack, in which a van was deliberately driven into pedestrians on Barcelona’s famed Las Ramblas strip. At least 13 people are dead, and around 100 have been left injured, like reported by theconversation.com.

The location and targeting of the attack deviates from IS’s previous efforts. These have typically focused on punishing countries directly involved in military operations against it in Syria and Iraq.

But how reliable are its claims of responsibility? And why was Spain chosen, given its relatively inconsequential role in the fight against IS?

The validity of IS’s claims

Verifying the culpability of terror attacks can traditionally be a tricky affair. Given that organisations that engage in terrorism are doing so from a position of weakness, there is always an incentive to lie in order to bolster mystique and inflate the image of threat.

But in this regard, IS seems to differ from previous groups. It has typically been reliably truthful in what it claims to have been its actions.

One Australian example of this can be found in the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege. The perpetrator, Man Haron Monis, proclaimed he was acting under IS auspices. But despite this declaration, and the potential propaganda victory it could bring, IS resisted such advances and distanced itself from the incident.

While IS would go on to posthumously praise Monis’ actions, it never made any explicit claims to having organised or directed them. No pre-existing relationship was found in the subsequent inquest.

This incident, along with many others, seems to indicate that while IS claims a butcher’s bill of heinous activities, it doesn’t tend to overtly lie about them.

Such a policy, while initially appearing counter-intuitive, maintains IS’s perception as a trustworthy source of information. This is particularly important in recruitment efforts, and makes it difficult for governments to challenge the IS’s claims in counter-propaganda.

For IS, maintaining a twisted sense of chivalrous virtue remains paramount.

Spain and the clash of civilisations

The Barcelona attack also reflects IS’s view of the world as a civilisational clash.

Described as a “reluctant partner” in the anti-IS coalition, Spain has resisted entreaties to join military efforts. Instead, it has opted for what it sees as a less risky role – providing logistical aid and training to local Iraqi forces, as well as preventing homegrown attempts to support IS abroad.

Spain’s limited role in the fight, particularly in contrast to other terror victims such as France and the US, might lead one to expect it to be relatively low on IS’s hit list.

But in terms of IS’s conflict narrative, Spain represents just another manifestation of a hostile Western civilisation in a state of war against the Islamic community. This leaves it more than open for reprisals.

At a spiritual level, Spain also holds a special place in IS’s mythology. Once a part of the Islamic empire, al-Ándalus, as it is known in Arabic, is seen by many IS ideologues as a natural territorial part of the end-state caliphate and currently under direct occupation by infidels.

Shock and bore

Terrorist reprisals like this attack are likely to intensify temporarily against Western targets throughout Europe and further abroad over the coming months and years, as the IS is systematically deconstructed on its home turf in Iraq and Syria.

IS remains heavily dependant on an image of defiant dynamism and a commitment to challenge the international status quo, which it claims subjugates the chosen community. As its ability to function as a “state” continues to decline, it will increasingly seek to maintain such a mystique through acts of spite against those that have prevented it from achieving its goal of a “caliphate”.

Despite a likely future increase in terrorist attacks, IS also risks a growing public disinterest and apathy toward its activities.

As one commentator has written, the banality and nontheatrical nature of IS’s approach to terrorism – particularly in contrast to al-Qaeda’s keen eye for spectacular symbology – has left many onlookers less than impressed and far from terrified.