(下は北アイルランドの地図）
イスラム国、ヨーロッパの各地でパリでの攻撃に似たテロを計画中
シリアからの大量難民の流入はそれ自体、ＥＵの存立基盤を大きく
毀損しようとしている重大問題であり、かつその解決の方策はまったく
立っていない。
しかし、それと並んで不気味なのは、イスラム国によるヨーロッパでの
テロ攻撃である。ＥＵの関連当局が指摘しているように、すでに同様の
計画が立てられており、そのいくつかが事前にキャッチできたため、起きていない
旨の声明がいくつか発表されている。フランスでは昨春以来、１１件が摘発されて
いる。
ＥＵの当局者が、「イスラム国はそうしたテロを起こす意思と能力をもっている」と
公言しているほどである。
イスラム国は、ソフトな場所を攻撃対象においている。人々が集まり楽しんでいる
ような場所に自爆テロや爆弾投下行為を行うことで、民心を恐怖に追い込むという
作戦である。とくにフランスは主要なターゲットになっているが、ロンドンも同様であ
ろう。
こうした組織・・・話し合いの余地はまったくなく、殲滅させなければ、いまの恐怖
はずっと続くという神経戦を、ヨーロッパは強いられている。
そして、話を複雑にしているのは、すでに北アフリカ、中東からの移民は長年に
わたって住民としてヨーロッパで暮らしている。フランスのように、そこで大きな差別
を感じている若者はイスラム国に共鳴する可能性がつねにある。つまりＥＵ内部か
ら同調者が出現するという問題である。フランスに住むアラブ人がフランスで生ま
れ、フランスで教育を受け、そして差別を感じている。それは親がアルジェリアから
逃れてきたというのとは、状況が異なる。子どもはフランスしか知らない。そこで他
のフランス人とは違い大きな差別を受けているとしたら、不満をもつのは当然のこと
である。だから問題の根は深い。
それにしても、２０１４年９月からアメリカ軍（および有志連合）は、恒常的にシリア
のイスラム国の拠点に空爆を続けているが、一向にイスラム国の殲滅に至ってい
ない、というこのこと自体、これまでには考えられなかったような事態である。国とは
名ばかりの軍事組織であるイスラム国であるのに、世界の指導的軍事力をもつ国
が参加しても（空軍だけだが）、いつ殲滅できるか分からない状況であるとは・・・。
＊＊＊
話は変わるが、北アイルランドでＩＲＡの残党によるテロ的攻撃が発生している。
長年にわたり北アイルランドは内戦状況にあった場所であり、ロンドンなどで
テロ的攻撃が繰り返されていたことがある。（サッチャーもあやうく一命を落とす
ところであった。） 現在、平和協定が成立し、落ち着きを取り戻してきた北アイル
ランドであるが、１９１６年のイースター蜂起の１００周年ということで、何かきな臭い
動きが出ている２番目の記事）。これはイギリスとアイルランドとのあいだの歴史
的対立と関係する長い歴史をもつ問題である。北アイルランド問題は、１７世紀の
クロムウェルにまで遡る植民地支配問題でもある。
(イギリスは、現在、イングランド、ウェールズ、スコットランド、そして北アイルランドで構成されている。そのうちスコットランドは昨年、独立を国民投票を行い、
失敗している。いまここで問題になっているのは、北アイルランドである。イギリスは
国土としては小国であるが、その内部でも複雑な歴史が織り込まれており、そのう
えに、かつて大英帝国が形成され、世界帝国として君臨していたのである。いま
は、大英帝国というのは、スエズ危機で崩壊し、冷戦体制に世界は移ったのだが、
シティの金融街は世界的な金融中心地としての存在感を回復させている。）
＊＊＊
Isis targeting Europe for Paris-style attacks, says EU
police chief
Europol head says Islamic State seeking to
carry out large-scale attacks in Europe similar to last year’s on French
capital
People are evacuated following an attack at the Bataclan
concert venue in Paris on 13 November 2015. Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty
Images
Monday 25 January 2016 13.49 GMTLast modified on
Monday 25 January 201615.43 GMT
·
Islamic State is actively
focusing its attention on conducting large-scale attacks in Europe similar to
those last year in Paris, the head of the EU’s law enforcement agency has said.
Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, the
Hague-based organisation that coordinates EU policing efforts over terrorism
and organised crime, said Isis had “developed a new combat-style capability to
carry out a campaign of large-scale terrorist attacks on a global stage, with a
particular focus in Europe”.
His comments, at a meeting of interior ministers in Amsterdam, came as
France’s interior minister said Islamist terrorists had planned to attack
another concert in Paris and carry out a mass killing in the streets of the
capital.
Bernard Cazeneuve was defending the government’s decision to maintain a
state of emergency imposed after the shootings and bombings across Paris on 13
November, which left 130 people dead, including 89 at the Bataclan concert hall. Isis claimed responsibility.
Cazeneuve said that since last spring the country’s intelligence services
had foiled 11 terrorist attacks, some of
which had been ordered by the Islamic State attackers behind the Paris
atrocities.
Wainwright, a Briton who previously had a senior role at the Serious Organised
Crime Agency, was unveiling a Europol report on the changes to operations by
militant Islamist groups.
He said: “So-called Islamic State has a willingness and a capability to
carry out further attacks in Europe, and of
course all national authorities are working to prevent that from happening.”
Europol director Rob Wainwright in Amsterdam, 25 January
2016. Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP
The Europol report says Islamic State is preparing more mass gun and bomb
attacks of the sort seen in Paris and, in 2008, in Mumbai, “to be
executed in member states of the EU, and in France in particular”.
It added: “The attacks will be primarily directed at soft targets, because
of the impact it generates. Both the November Paris attacks and the October
2015 bombing of a Russian airliner suggest a shift in IS strategy towards going global.”
On Monday the Council of Europe criticised France’s attempt to extend the
state of emergency, in a letter from the watchdog’s secretary-general to the
French president, François Hollande.
Thorbjorn Jagland warned of the risks that could result from the renewal,
such as “the circumstances in which administrative searches or house arrests
may be carried out”. He also warned against restrictions on freedom of movement
and problems that might arise from the use of firearms by French security
forces.
Speaking to France 5 television, Cazeneuve said the state of emergency was
“necessary … but should remain temporary”. It would remain “as long as there is
an imminent danger”.
“The state of emergency is a tool, among others ... and it’s not because
we are extending it that it will be extended forever. Let me remind you that
not all the terrorists who carried out the 13 November attacks were caught,” he
said.
Four suspects believed to have been involved in the November attacks or to
have aided the attackers are still being hunted by police.
Meanwhile, Islamic State has released a video showing the jihadis believed
to have carried out the Paris attacks. In the film,
the group threatens other “coalition” countries, including Britain.
The video was uploaded to a recognised Isis channel and purports to show
some of the Paris attackers wearing camouflage fatigues while training in
an unknown desert location.
Isis video
threatening UK claims to show Paris attackers in Syria and Iraq
Read more
The men, speaking in French and Arabic, addressed their message to “all
the countries taking part in the coalition” that has been carrying out
airstrikes against the group in Syria and Iraq since September 2014.
A picture of the British prime minister, David Cameron, was shown
alongside the words “whoever stands in the ranks of kuffar (unbelievers) will
be a target for our swords”. The video described the nine Paris attackers as
“lions” who “brought France to its knees”.
Hollande, on an official visit to India, said the country would not be
intimidated. “Nothing will deter us, no threat will make France waver in the
fight against terrorism,” Hollande told reporters in Delhi.
Terrorists struck France in a series of attacks last year, which began
with shootings at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January. The
government introduced a state of emergency after the November attacks, but the
move has been criticised by civil liberties groups.
It is due to expire on 26 February, but last week the Elysée Palace
announced it would seek to extend it for another three months.
Cazeneuve and the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, have often spoken
of the number of planned attacks foiled by the intelligence services, but their
warnings have failed to dampen concern over the state of emergency powers.
＊＊＊
Northern
Ireland police warn of dissident violence to mark Easter Rising
Dissident
republicans may step up violence to mark centenary, says police union chief
after officers targeted in north Armagh riot
The Real IRA
commemorates the 1916 Easter Rising at Creggan cemetery in Derry. Police blamed
the violence in Armagh on fellow Republican dissidents, the Continuity IRA.
Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
Monday 25 January 2016 20.58 GMTLast modified on
Monday 25 January 201621.04 GMT
·
Police are
warning of a major escalation in dissident republican violence in the run-up to
the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
The Police
Federation for Northern Ireland was responding to gun and petrol bomb attacks on officers
during rioting in north Armagh on Sunday and the early hours of Monday morning.
Mark Lindsay,
the federation’s regional chairman, said it was fortunate that the only damage
caused was to a number of police vehicles during the disturbances near the
Belfast-Dublin railway line at Lurgan, Co Armagh.
Earlier on
Monday the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)
confirmed that its officers came under gunfire during a riot close to the
railway. Up to 100 petrol bombs were also thrown at the PSNI during the
disturbances at Lake Street in Lurgan.
The attacks
took place as the PSNI and army bomb-disposal officers dealt with a suspect
device on the railway line between Dublin and Belfast, the PSNI said. Train
services between the two cities are still severely disrupted, with passengers
from Belfast having to be taken by bus to Newry before connecting with a train
from the Irish Republic for the southbound journey onwards to Dublin.
No one was
injured during the clashes, which police described as “orchestrated, intense
and prolonged violence”.
Supt David
Moore said: “The behaviour of those involved in the disorder last night was
nothing short of disgusting.”
The police
federation said it was lucky there had not been “a long casualty list” as a
result of the violence, which Lindsay claimed was orchestrated and directed by
dissident republicans opposed to the peace process.
Lindsay said:
“The people who are out to fulfil some ridiculous pipe dream don’t care about
the upset they cause local people. They need to be condemned and ostracised. We
need to put these would-be killers out of business and, for that, we need the
help of the community.
“As we
approach the centenary of the Easter Rising, my worry is that dissident
republicans will attempt to escalate their actions, and cause even more
disruption, as they seek to kill or maim officers, who are there to safeguard
innocent people who want to have nothing whatsoever to do with these mindless
thugs.”
The stories you need
to read, in one handy email
Read more
Local sources
say the anti-ceasefire Continuity IRA (CIRA) was behind the violence. The
dissident republican group has a small but active presence in the Lurgan and
Craigavon areas of north Armagh.
They told
Guardian that the trouble was linked to the ongoing trial of a number of
dissident republican figures from the north Armagh area at a non-jury court in
Belfast.
The CIRA was
responsible for killing the first member of the PSNI, Constable Stephen
Carroll, who was shot dead in a sniper attack on a police patrol in 2009.
Meanwhile, the
PSNI also revealed that it had recovered an assault rifle and ammunition during
a security operation in Strabane, Co Tyrone, at the weekend aimed at disrupting
the activities of republican dissident groups in the north-west of Northern
Ireland.
A senior
police officer in the town later said the weapon, an Armalite rifle, was about
to be used in an attack on a PSNI patrol.
