Terrorism Fears Grow in Europe as France Issues UK Warning
Updated: 1 hour 40 minutes ago
(Oct. 6) -- Just days after the U.S., Britain and Japan issued warnings to their citizens about travel in Europe, France joined in by telling French citizens that the risk of a terrorist attack in Britain is high.
France's announcement came late Tuesday, just after French police conducted terror raids near Marseilles and before a senior British diplomat and a French contractor were attacked in Yemen today.
A rocket-propelled grenade hit a car carrying five people to the British Embassy in Sana'a this morning, injuring four passengers. But the deputy chief of mission, Fiona Gibb, who was in the vehicle, was not hurt, media reports said.
Later in the day, a security guard who worked at an Austrian energy plant in Yemen opened fire on a Frenchman and killed him. There was no immediate claim for responsibility in the attacks, though al-Qaida's increasing influence in the country make its involvement likely.
A climate of fear has swept some countries in Europe, especially France, to the point where a senior U.S. government official, Deputy U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jane Holl Lute, will be joining a meeting of European interior ministers Thursday in Luxembourg to discuss the terror threats,Agence France-Presse reported today.
A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry acknowledged that there is a thin line between warning people about what for now is still an abstract threat -- and scaring them.
"We don't want to alarm [people] too much," Bernard Valero told The Associated Press. "But also we want to keep a very high level of preparedness on this issue."
Germany, however, has conspicuously downplayed the fear voiced by many that extremists, including European nationals trained in Pakistani jihadist camps, are planning a Mumbai-style attack on a European city.
The AFP reported today that the U.S. has evidence of a terror plot involving some European citizens who have returned to Europe after being trained in camps abroad. But German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere warned reporters against overreacting this week.
The German newspaper Deutsche-Welle reported to its readers that Fox News had said that Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, the tower of Alexanderplatz and its train station were potential terrorist targets. But Maiziere appeared to discount the warnings.
"There are currently no indications of any immediate threat of attacks planned against Germany," said de Maiziere. "There is no reason whatsoever to be alarmist at the moment."
France posted its warning on the government website late Tuesday, hours after police arrested 12 people suspected of having ties to extremists in two raids in southern France.
Three men were arrested in Marseilles and Bordeaux in connection with the arrest Saturday of a man discovered at the Naples train station with bomb materials, The New York Times reported. Nine others were arrested in a separate case involving weapons and explosives trafficking. The Times said the arrests came after lengthy investigations and, while not linked, were both tied to radical Islamic groups.
"The level of terrorist threat is very high in the United Kingdom, and the risk of an attack is very likely," the message on the French website read. The warning is for French citizens who live in Britain or who travel there. France warned them to be careful of public transportation and tourist attractions, places that terrorists are likely to hit.
A travel alert was issued Sunday by the U.S. "Current information suggests that al-Qaida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks [in Europe]," the alert on the State Department's website said.
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