Citation

Bardos GN. World Affairs 2016; 179(1): 81-88.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, World Affairs Institute, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0043820016662752

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Charlie Hebdo attacker Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Koulibali, who carried out the attack on the kosher supermarket in Paris, were recruited by Djamel Beghal, a longtime Al Qaeda operative. The ringleader of the later November 2015 Paris atrocities, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, directed preparatory work for the attacks from Athens, and Salah Abdeslam and two of the suicide-bombers used the migrants' Balkan route to get to France. Improving the security environment in southeastern Europe was going to be crucial to any effort to maintain security in the European Union (EU). Conservative estimates suggest that in Albania, Bosnia, and Kosovo alone, extremists control more than 150 mosques and prayer rooms. The police director of the Bosnian Federation claimed that his service had sixty 'extremist communities' under surveillance, and an Austrian intelligence report claimed that in Bosnia, the Wahhabi movement continued to build new outposts.

Language: en

Keywords

European Union; France; terrorism; social security; Paris; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Albania; Kosovo; Ile de France; Ville de Paris