Rabat - Abdulhaq Al-Khiyam, head of the Moroccan FBI, officially known as the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (CBIJ), said that France and Belgium - both recent targets of the so-called “Islamic State” - "do not take the necessary steps" to adequately address the threat of terrorism in their soils.
Rabat – Abdulhaq Al-Khiyam, head of the Moroccan FBI, officially known as the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (CBIJ), said that France and Belgium – both recent targets of the so-called “Islamic State” – “do not take the necessary steps” to adequately address the threat of terrorism in their soils.
The CBIJ-head, made the remarks during an interview with British tabloid The Sun. He said the two countries’ inability to act swiftly in the face of the global threat had an effect on the Brussels’ attackers capacity to carry out two bombings in a major airport and one at a subway station in front of the European Union headquarters building.
France has been in a state of emergency since the November attacks in the nation’s capital city killed 130 people. Led by President Francois Hollande, the country has been trying to revise its 1958 constitution in order to give the government, especially the executive branch. additional tools to combat terrorism threats.
After ISIS-backed terrorists killed 31 people in Belgium’s capital city, the country has been leading an international manhunt for the masterminds of the Brussels plot and others promoting terrorism in Europe.
Later in the interview, Al-Khiyam said Belgium has become the European wing of the “Islamic State.
“The terrorists do not have any religion or any country, which is why all of the countries in the world are ISIS’ targets,” he said.
He continued: “I hope British people remember that ISIS is hated by Muslims. I fight against them everyday, because they darken the name of Islam that I believe in.”
Al-Khiyam also pointed to a raid conducted by his bureau in February that revealed the plans a terrorist cell had made to attack four Moroccan cities, the United Kingdom, and other parts of Europe with a combination of biological and chemical weapons. The cell, which has been dismantled, also sought to use a 16-year-old minor as a suicide bomber to attack a government building.
The CBIJ arrested the members of the cell 24 hours before they planned to carry out their first attacks and warned the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe that ISIS had been masterminding deadly attacks targeting the region’s civilians.
The materials needed to build potent biological and chemical weapons are widely available in Europe, Al-Khiyam said, noting that the weapons are also easy to prepare.
A raid conducted to dismantle a particularly daring terrorist cell discovered a sprayable biological weapon that could kill people who touch it by deactivating the victims’ nerves and knocking them out of consciousness, the CBIJ head said. The substance could also have been used to pollute a locality’s water supply, quickly leading to disastrous public health outcomes.
