Euro 2008: Al-Qaeda threatens terrorist attack

Al-Qaeda fanatics are threatening to launch an attack on the two host countries of the Euro 2008 football tournament next month, according to Swiss security sources.

Militants posted messages on Islamist web forums, threatening to transform Switzerland and Austria "into hell, like the hell in Iraq and Afghanistan".

The championships, which begin on June 7, will be hosted in Switzerland and Austria which are in a "terrorist danger zone".

Juerg Buehler, a security expert with the Swiss federal police, said: "The Euro 2008 tournament is a potential target cited by the Islamist terrorist network."

Today Daniele Bersier, spokeswoman of the Swiss federal office for police matters, admitted the world's third largest sports event "could well be a rewarding goal from the perspective of terrorists".

But she stressed there was no concrete evidence of a planned attack at this stage.

She said: "Nothing has changed in our analysis of the threat.

"It can be stated that so far there is no evidence of concrete actions in preparation of an attack on Switzerland or Euro 2008."

She said the security picture would become clearer as the event approaches, including the potential for violence by rightist or leftist militants in the four host Swiss cities, and said the authorities would act accordingly.

The threatening messages were posted on 'sos minbar' and 'As-Sahab', two Islamist websites used by Al-Qa'eda and its followers.

Mr Buehler added: "We are taking these threats very seriously. We are on alert and we are following these Jihad forums very closely.

"It is through these that Osama bin Laden's agents awaken dormant cells.

"The situation is serious even if it is frustrated people hiding behind these sites."

Another message on one of the sites read: "The hour has come for fighters of the faith. They must make themselves heard" and "Austria must withdraw from Afghanistan."

A report by Swiss federal police in April said the neutral Alpine country was "not a primary target of Islamist terrorism, even if the jihadists consider it as a 'state of crusade'."

The report said that the uncovering of "sleeper cells" in Britain, Denmark and Germany in the past year had shown that "homegrown" Islamist terrorism existed in Europe.

But there was no evidence of preparations for an attack on Switzerland.

It said militant activities in Switzerland were mainly limited to propaganda, logistics and financing for groups active in Iraq and other hotspots.

Calls by Al Qaeda extremists to attack Switzerland and Austria during Euro 2008 are being taken seriously by authorities, a senior Swiss security official said.

Messages on "sos minbar" and "As-Sahab", two internet sites favoured by the terrorist group and calling for attacks on the two host nations, had multiplied in recent weeks, the official was quoted as saying by La Liberte daily published Thursday.

"We are taking these threats seriously," he said.

"We are on alert and we are following these jihad forums very closely. It is through these that (Osama) Bin Laden's agents awaken dormant cells. The situation is serious even if it is frustrated people hiding behind these sites."

According to the official, one site said: "Let's transform the two most secure countries in Europe into hell, like the hell in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Another message said: "The hour has come for fighters of the faith. They must make themselves heard."

Euro 2008 kicks off June 7 in the Swiss city of Basle. Millions of football fans are expected to travel to the games shared between eight venues in Switzerland and four in Austria for what is one of the world's biggest international sporting events.

Source: DPA

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Islamic militants have called for terrorist attacks during the tournament next month in messages posted on jihadist websites, said police in Geneva.

The championships in Switzerland and Austria start on June 7. The Swiss federal police spokesman, Juerg Buehler, told the newspaper La Liberte that the tournament "is a target cited by the Islamist terrorist network" on websites.

"We are following the situation very closely," he said.

He told La Liberte that similar threats were made before the World Cup in Germany in 2006, and that some attacks were planned against the rail network but were called off because security was considered too tight.

"We are prepared for every eventuality," he said.

In later comments, a Swiss police spokesman said that there was no "concrete" threat yet.

"Any big event like Euro 2008 could be a target of choice for terrorists ... but there are no concrete elements right now that would lean one to fear any specific danger."

No extremist group has given any specific indication that it will target the football championships, police added.

"It is clear however that how things develop in the coming weeks and months in global hotspots could have security repercussions at home," the statement said.

La Liberte said appeals for attacks had grown on websites known to be used by al-Qa’eda followers and other militant groups.

It acknowledged that Switzerland is widely accused of Islamophobia in the Muslim world, notably because of opposition to the construction of mosque minarets in several Swiss cities.

Austria could be a target because of the presence of its troops in the international force in Afghanistan.

Counter-terrorism experts say Islamist forums regularly carry threats of attacks which have to be studied, though few are to be taken seriously.

A senior United States counter-terrorism official has declared that the demise of al-Qa'eda is in sight, as the terrorist group's failure to adapt its violent ideology and tactics has provoked growing dissent across the Islamic world.

The uprising by Sunni tribes against al-Qa'eda in Iraq, combined with protests in northern African countries against suicide bombings and dissent from clerics and former terrorists have put the group's leadership on the defensive as never before, said the official.

"If al-Qa'eda maintains its current state of play of attacking civilians and Muslims, and continuing to not change its philosophy, it will start to fizzle," the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said the end of the movement as a global threat was "visible" and "foreseeable", in contrast to previous assumptions that it last for generations.

Acknowledging that the threat of a major al-Qa'eda attack remains significant not just in Iraq but in Europe and elsewhere, his remarks reflected a quiet confidence within the George W. Bush administration that one of its major goals will be achieved before too long.

Major declarations of triumph have been precluded by the mockery that followed the president's "Mission Accomplished" statement in Iraq in 2003, while US generals have been divided about how far to boast about successes in Iraq, where this week Iraqi forces launched an offensive against al-Qa'eda in Mosul, the group's the last urban bastion.

But White House officials are beginning to express confidence that al-Qa'eda will be defeated and offer some justification for Mr Bush's policies even after he has left office.

Juan Carlos Zarate, the White House's deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism, said in a recent speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy: "There has been a growing rejection of the al-Qa'eda program and message.

"We know that all of this matters to al-Qa'eda and that its senior leadership is sensitive to the perceived legitimacy of both their

actions and their ideology."

Critics argue that administration officials are merely salvaging scraps of good news from the wreckage of the Iraq war, and point to the continuing radicalisation of young Muslim men.

But Mr Zarate and others have seen several recent encouraging developments. Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden, held a 90-minute Internet conversation with radicals during which he was forced on several occasions to defend al-Qa'eda's killing of Muslim civilians.

Last year prominent Saudi cleric Salman Awdah wrote an open letter to bin Laden condemning the deaths of innocent parties and accusing the terrorists of harming Muslim charities through association.

The senior official said the formation last month in London of the Quilliam Foundation, the counter-extremist think-tank led by former Hizb ut-Tahrir members Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz, was another reason for optimism.

"There are indicators all over the world of where al-Qa'eda's programme is not meeting with the grand acceptance that it assumed," he said.

The US is heartened by al-Qa'eda's failure to create a political wing or to dilute its policy of violence as a means to establishing a new caliphate.

"They are not going to stop bombing people and claiming that those who don't think like them are unbelievers. They are almost digging a deeper hole for themselves by finding new enemies," the official added, citing a recent Zawahiri audio message that berated the United Nations, Norway, Japan and Buddhists along with familiar targets like the US and Britain.

A senior United States counter-terrorism official has declared that the demise of al-Qa'eda is in sight, as the terrorist group's failure to adapt its violent ideology and tactics has provoked growing dissent across the Islamic world.

The uprising by Sunni tribes against al-Qa'eda in Iraq, combined with protests in northern African countries against suicide bombings and dissent from clerics and former terrorists have put the group's leadership on the defensive as never before, said the official.

"If al-Qa'eda maintains its current state of play of attacking civilians and Muslims, and continuing to not change its philosophy, it will start to fizzle," the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said the end of the movement as a global threat was "visible" and "foreseeable", in contrast to previous assumptions that it last for generations.

Acknowledging that the threat of a major al-Qa'eda attack remains significant not just in Iraq but in Europe and elsewhere, his remarks reflected a quiet confidence within the George W. Bush administration that one of its major goals will be achieved before too long.

Major declarations of triumph have been precluded by the mockery that followed the president's "Mission Accomplished" statement in Iraq in 2003, while US generals have been divided about how far to boast about successes in Iraq, where this week Iraqi forces launched an offensive against al-Qa'eda in Mosul, the group's the last urban bastion.

But White House officials are beginning to express confidence that al-Qa'eda will be defeated and offer some justification for Mr Bush's policies even after he has left office.

Juan Carlos Zarate, the White House's deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism, said in a recent speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy: "There has been a growing rejection of the al-Qa'eda program and message.

"We know that all of this matters to al-Qa'eda and that its senior leadership is sensitive to the perceived legitimacy of both their

actions and their ideology."

Critics argue that administration officials are merely salvaging scraps of good news from the wreckage of the Iraq war, and point to the continuing radicalisation of young Muslim men.

But Mr Zarate and others have seen several recent encouraging developments. Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden, held a 90-minute Internet conversation with radicals during which he was forced on several occasions to defend al-Qa'eda's killing of Muslim civilians.

Last year prominent Saudi cleric Salman Awdah wrote an open letter to bin Laden condemning the deaths of innocent parties and accusing the terrorists of harming Muslim charities through association.

The senior official said the formation last month in London of the Quilliam Foundation, the counter-extremist think-tank led by former Hizb ut-Tahrir members Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz, was another reason for optimism.

"There are indicators all over the world of where al-Qa'eda's programme is not meeting with the grand acceptance that it assumed," he said.

The US is heartened by al-Qa'eda's failure to create a political wing or to dilute its policy of violence as a means to establishing a new caliphate.

"They are not going to stop bombing people and claiming that those who don't think like them are unbelievers. They are almost digging a deeper hole for themselves by finding new enemies," the official added, citing a recent Zawahiri audio message that berated the United Nations, Norway, Japan and Buddhists along with familiar targets like the US and Britain.