The number of people killed in terrorist attacks throughout Europe rose in 2015 from a year earlier, according to the European Union police agency.
A report released Wednesday warned Islamic State may “put more emphasis on operations abroad” as a Western military alliance increases its pressure on the group in Syria and Iraq.
It says 151 people died and more than 360 were injured as a result of terrorist attacks in the European Union countries. Six EU member states faced 211 failed, foiled, and completed terrorist attacks, said Europol which is based in the The Hague.
Europol says 1,077 individuals were arrested for terrorism-related offenses, 424 in France. It says 94 percent of the individuals tried for terrorism were found guilty.
Operational difficulties
Europol also issued a separate statement on the four terrorist attacks recently carried out in France, Germany and the United States, (Orlando, USA; Magnaville and Nice, France; Würzburg, Germany), saying they "highlight the operational difficulties in detecting and disrupting lone actor attacks.'' Such attacks remain a favored tactic by IS and al-Qaida.
Despite the attackers' pledges of allegiance to the IS group, "their actual involvement ... cannot be established," Europol said.
IS has often shown it trains minors to become “the next generation of foreign terrorist fighters, which may pose a future security threat,'' the report said.
Both IS and al-Qaida groups have repeatedly called on Muslims living in Western countries to perpetrate lone actor attacks in their countries.
