France and Belgium face “imminent” terror attack from Isil commandos who left Syria around week ago and are already armed, according to a Belgian intelligence note cited by local media.
The chilling warning that two-men groups were on the verge of striking emerged just hours before the kick off of France’s second Euro 2016 game against Albania in Marseille and a day after a Frenchman who killed a police commander in the name of Isil warned that the Euro would become a “graveyard”.
The note from Belgium’s anti-terror unit to police and published by Dernière Heure newspaper, warned: “Combattants are thought to have left Syria around a week and a half ago to reach Europe.
“These people are thought to have split into two groups – one for Belgium, the other for France in order to commit terror attacks in groups of two,” it was cited as warning.
“According to information collected, these people are thought to already be in possession of the necessary weaponry and their attack is imminent.”
While Dernière Heure makes no mention of specific threats to football stadiums or other targets in France, it cites more precise information on three Belgian targets. These include ” a big Brussels shopping centre, a restaurant of a American fast food chain (not localised) and a police target, such as a police station (not localised)”.
Despite the alarming warning, Paul Van Tigchelt, one of the heads of Belgium’s anti-terror body, Ocam, sought to play down the note, saying it had received similar intelligence of an imminent attack in April which came to nothing.
Mr Van Tigchelt said: “Ocam receives all sorts of information. This is raw intelligence. Our missions, in relation with our partners, is to put it into context, to analyse it and verify who reliable it is,”
For the past few weeks, Ocam has kept the country on alert level three, meaning there is a “serious” risk of attack. The maximum level is four, meaning the risk is “serious and imminent”.
Despite the warning, he said there was no intention of raising the alert level in Belgium.
France, however, “remains the preferred target for IS,” wrote DH, citing Belgian intelligence.
The paper also revealed that Mohamed Abrini, the terror suspect arrested in the wake of the attacks on Brussels airport and metro in March that killed 32, has managed to communicate with the outside world despite being confined to a prison in Beveren.
A message scrawled in Arabic on an A4 piece of paper that was intercepted by a fellow inmate and handed to prison authorities reads: “Something is moving in France”.
The warning came barely 24 hours after Larossi Abballa, a 25 Frenchman, stabbed to death police commander Jean-Baptiste Savaing in his home, and then killed his partner Jessica Schneider, also a police employee, inside. He then posted a 12-minute message on Facebook Live, a new real-time broadcast app.
In a 12-minute ran, Abballa also promised “other surprises for the Euro,” calling on supporters to “turn the Euro into a graveyard.”
His murders took place little more than 36 hours after the massacre at a gay club in Orlando by an Isil-inspired gunman left 49 dead.
In a speech at the Elysee Palace on Wednesday President Francois Hollande warned that fighting terrorism is “a long war to wage not just in a few countries but in the whole world, everyone can be concerned”.
Manuel Valls, the prime minister, said: “I said we were at war, that this war will take a generation, that it will be long”,
“Other innocent people will die. It is very hard to say. People can accuse me – and I completely understand – of making the society even more fearful than it already is today with these events. But unfortunately, this is the reality. It will take a generation.”
telegraph.co.uk
