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US Issues Terror Warning to Citizens Travelling to Europe | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A Belgian soldier patrols Brussels’ Grand Place in 2015 after two people were arrested in Belgium for plotting attacks on New Year’s Eve. (Reuters)


Washington, Brussels – The US State Department issued a new travel notice, warning its citizens travelling to Europe that a terrorist attack could happen at any time.

The notice referred to incidents linked to terrorism in France, Russia, Sweden and the UK, noting that ISIS, al-Qaeda and affiliated groups could carry out terror attacks on the European continent.

“While local governments continue counter-terrorism operations, the department nevertheless remains concerned about the potential for future terrorist attacks,” the alert issued by the US State Department said.

“US citizens should always be alert to the possibility that terrorist sympathizers or self-radicalized extremists may conduct attacks with little or no warning,” it added.

Meanwhile, Reuters quoted on Tuesday the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) as saying that more attacks by the ISIS militant group and its sympathizers were expected across Europe.

“In Switzerland, the terrorist threat remains at a heightened level,” the FIS said in its annual assessment of risks faced by Switzerland, Reuters reported.

“The most likely terrorist threat in Europe and thus also in Switzerland will continue to come from jihad-motivated terrorism,” it said, adding: “Further attacks must be expected.”

Although Switzerland has so far not been targeted directly in a terrorist attack, it has had several links to attacks that occurred elsewhere in Europe last year.

Two men who took hostages and killed a priest in northern France last July had travelled via airports in Geneva and Zurich.

Another man who killed at least 12 people when he drove a lorry into a crowded Berlin Christmas market had also visited Switzerland and may also have obtained a gun there, Reuters said.

The Swiss spy agency said it had identified more than 500 Internet users with Swiss connections who were using social media to spread extremist ideas.