Spanish interior ministry flags jihadist call to target police and protesters across Europe
The Interior Ministry’s cyber-security unit uncovered an online jihadist plea urging attacks on police and demonstrators in Spain and other European nations during street protests.
Spain’s Ministry of the Interior, through its Office of Coordination of Cybersecurity, released alert OCC-00055-097 after detecting a jihadist publication on a Daesh-affiliated website. The post calls for violent attacks on police and protest participants in several European countries, naming France, Italy, Spain and Portugal as locations where street gatherings are occurring. It promotes the use of explosives, knives and vehicle-based rammings, even describing suicide-type bombings as a method.
The authors argue that police engaged in crowd control become easy targets, and they provide tactical advice to increase the lethality of assaults. The alert includes an English-language excerpt of the original message and notes that the content specifically mentions Spain among the nations experiencing protests. The ministry’s warning underscores the threat of extremist actors seeking to exploit public demonstrations for terror acts.
Why it matters
Extremist groups are trying to turn public protests into targets for terrorism, raising security risks for police and demonstrators across Europe.
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