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“A
key area of focus is gaining a better understanding of how these cells
are structured and their organizational and operational methods,” he
said.
Mr.
Henman, reflecting the views of half a dozen intelligence,
counterterrorism and military officials interviewed in Europe last week,
said the authorities’ working assumption of how the Islamic State
structures its external operations in Europe might be shifting.
Officials
believed that the Islamic State had developed an overarching network of
facilitators in Europe over the last few years to buy weapons, rent
cars and reserve hotel rooms for teams of operatives who had previously
traveled to, or were returning from, Iraq or Syria.
But
after Brussels, Mr. Henman said, the thinking now reflects the belief
that the operation may instead be made up of self-contained cells, with
individuals who can perform multiple jobs as needed.
The
British authorities are on alert, and the threat level in Britain
remains at “severe,” meaning that an attack is “highly likely.”
The
Islamic State’s threats are in some ways easier to fulfill in France
and Belgium than elsewhere because of the large number of
French-speaking foreign fighters, many of whom are European citizens
from those countries.
Of
the foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 are
from Europe. About 1,800 people have left or tried to leave France to
fight in Syria and Iraq, according to recent statements by Bernard
Cazeneuve, the French interior minister. An additional 450 have gone to
those countries from Belgium, according to estimates by analysts in
Europe.
The
announcement on Sunday that the Islamic State had aimed to strike
France again came from the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office.
“Numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist
group initially had the intention to strike in France again,” the office
said in a statement.
“Eventually,
surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation,
they urgently took the decision to strike in Brussels,” the statement
said.
In the attacks in the two capitals, a total of 162 people died and 753 were wounded.
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