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AMERICAN intelligence helped thwart the ISIS-linked terror plot on Taylor Swift’s concerts in Austria this week.
Three teenagers have been arrested over the planned attacks after allegedly being radicalised online, Vienna cops said.
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Seebacher Doris/Krone KREATIV
The Ernst Happel Stadium where Swift’s concerts were set to take place this week
Fans queue to buy merchandise outside the stadium on Thursday – where a suspected terrorist planned to drive a car into the crowd
AFP
US intelligence passed to Europol and Austrian cops enabled them to act quickly and foil the attack the day before Swift’s first concert of the week, sources told ABC News.
They discovered one of the teens had links to ISIS-K, who carried out the horrific rampage on a concert hall in Russia in March, killing over 140 people.
The three unnamed men, a 19-year-old Austrian and two 17-year-olds, had plotted a series of attacks including at Swift’s sold-out gigs.
Concert organisers yesterday said they had “no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows” lined up for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Austria’s elite Cobra police helped with the arrests on Wednesday, storming the apartment of the 19-year-old in Ternitz after electricity and gas supplies were cut off.
Cops reportedly seized chemical and biological substances meant to build a “dirty bomb” at the home, local outlet Kurier reports.
The unnamed suspect is a native Austrian who pledged allegiance to death cult ISIS in the beginning of July, cops said.
He was detained in the early hours of Wednesday, with a second arrest made in Vienna that afternoon.
Later it was revealed that a third man had been nabbed by cops, with the younger two acting as accomplices.
According to Kurier, police are still hunting three other suspects who are on the run.
The men allegedly had specific and detailed plans on how to carry out a mass attack at the huge Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna.
Cops told local residents in Ternitz, an hour from the capital, to evacuate as they conducted a raid at the 19-year-old’s home on Wednesday morning.
Pictures showed investigators in hazmat suits at the scene.
He was living in his parents house along with another man, Kronen Zeitung reports.
The suspected terrorist apparently planned to drive a car into the some 20,000 fans expected to gather outside Vienna’s huge stadium during the concert.
There are also reports of knives and machetes being included in his attack plans.
He had previously been the focus of state forces on suspicion of terrorism, with top Austrian security brass now investigating.
Friends of the 19-year-old reportedly infiltrated security at the event, getting hired to help with set up and stewarding for the concert.
American intelligence had discovered that at least one of the men pledged support to ISIS-K, an ugly offshoot of the death cult, on Telegram in early July.
US intel uncovered a video which showed one of them swearing allegiance to ISIS, Bild reports.
ISIS-K terrorists claimed responsibility for the horrific Crocus City Hall attack in March, Europe’s worst terror attack in 20 years.
Four gunmen stormed the venue in Russia’s capital and opened fire before setting the building itself ablaze.
Some 65,000 fans were expected at each of Swift’s shows this week with another 20,000 gathering outside the stadium, local outlet Kurier reports.
Franz Ruf, Austrian Director General for Public Safety, said of the attack yesterday: “A concrete threat has been averted.
“The suspected perpetrator was focused on the Taylor Swift concerts. Preparatory actions were detected.”
Investigators believe the attack was inspired by ISIS but not directed by the horror group.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the cancelled shows are a “bitter disappointment” but added that a “tragedy [had been] prevented”.
The Sun revealed yesterday that Taylor Swift plans to keep on working and finish the tour after the sick plot was foiled on Tuesday.
An insider close to Taylor Swift’s entourage said news of the planned attacks came as a huge shock to the entire team, stressing the day was “not easy.”
Speaking to The U.S. Sun, they said Swift was explained the situation in a meeting, saying they were in “shock.”
The insider went on to say that Taylor held a meeting with her team, who felt “tense” after the threats, to explain what was happening and ensure everyone’s safety.
They claimed Swift is planning to continue working the Eras Tour following the threats.
“We are going to keep working for the next shows coming in London after the stop in Austria, but it wasn’t an easy day to, that is for sure,” the source continued.
Reuters
People walk past closed merchandising booths outside the stadium today
Instagram/barracuda.music
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Fans of Taylor Swift hang beaded bracelets on a ‘friendship bracelet tree’ in Vienna after her shows were cancelledTHE RESURGENCE OF ISIS
The terror threat posed by the Islamic State, or ISIS, has increased considerably this year.
It has risen across Europe and the US via threats, foiled attacks and some successful hits in a concerning escalation putting counter-terror experts on high alert.
Europol said the top concern of EU countries is “jihadist terrorism” and foreign terrorist fighters who travel from conflict zones.
France raised its terror threat level to the highest marker after the Moscow attack in March – meaning an attack is “imminent”.
Meanwhile, Western intelligence revealed how cops have stopped at least 12 terror attacks in the past 12 months across Europe.
Ten jihadist attacks have been bravely intercepted and prevented in Europe over the last year, Dutch intelligence agency AIVD said.
Among the attacks foiled are stabbing rampages at global events, and barbaric assaults on specific venues and certain groups being targeted, the agency’s annual report revealed.
The Paris Olympics chief also promised a ring of steel at the Games’ opening ceremony and insisted “security is the priority” to ensure the safety of an expected 15 million fans and more than 10,000 athletes.
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Footage showing four ISIS-K gunmen storming the Crocus City Hall venue in Moscow, March 2024What is ISIS?
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
ISIS, also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, is a murderous terrorist network that officially formed in 2004.
The group, known for its barbaric public executions and beheadings, was originally part of al-Qaeda – the terrorists responsible for 9/11 which sparked the decades-long global War on Terror.
They took advantage of instability in Iraq and Syria after 2000 to rule with an iron fist.
After an injection of American troops into Iraq in 2007, ISIS lost some of its power grip in the region.
But it began to reemerge in 2011 and by 2014 the US had formed Operation Inherent Resolve.
The mission involved putting American boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria – as well as other regions in the Middle East.
In 2014, ISIS was the most powerful, best-equipped and wealthiest Islamic extremist group the world had ever seen.
By 2015 it had branches operating in at least eight other countries.
That October, their Egypt network bombed a Russian plane and killed over 220 people.
In November 2015, 130 were murdered and over 300 injured during one of their most brutal attacks on the West in Paris.
And in June 2016, a gunman who pledged himself to the murderous organisation killed at least 48 people at a nightclub in Florida.
By December 2017, ISIS had lost 95 per cent of it’s stolen territory.
But its core ideologies, which included a burning hatred for the Western way of life, continued to inspire countless terrorist attacks around the world.
While American combat in Iraq was officially axed in December 2021, 2,500 troops were left stationed there to work as advisers and trainers for Iraqi security forces trying to fend off extremist forces.
There are believed to be less than 1,000 still stationed in Syria.
Three of those American troops were killed in Jordan on January 28 – in a drone attack at a US military base near the Syrian and Iraq borders.
English (US)