Italy and Sweden Act Against Threat of Militant Attacks
By REUTERS

ROME/STOCKHOLM — Police in Italy and Sweden hunted suspected militants and increased security around public buildings on Thursday after receiving reports that attacks might be planned on their soil following last week’s mass killings in Paris.

Swedish police arrested a man suspected of planning an attack and said investigations continued. The threat assessment level was at its highest ever, meaning a high probability “persons have the intent and ability to carry out an attack”.

Italy’s foreign minister said possible attacks could be aimed at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome or the cathedral or La Scala theatre in Milan. In Stockholm, police stepped up their presence around the parliament and main railway stations.

Both countries were on a high state of alert to guard against any possible attack.

Rome’s underground train operator temporarily closed lines on three separate occasions during the day due to suspicious packages, which all proved to be false alarms.

Milan’s top city authorities said after a meeting with police officials that there was “no specific evidence of an imminent danger for the city of Milan,” but security measures remained at their “maximum level.”

In Germany, Bild newspaper reported that a group of attackers had planned to set off multiple explosives in Hanover stadium at Tuesday night’s friendly football match between Germany and the Netherlands, and to detonate a bomb in the city centre.

Swedish police said they had arrested Mutar Muthanna Majid after distributed a grainy picture of a smiling, bearded young man dressed in dark clothing. Local media said he was arrested at a refugee centre but police decline to comment.

Tabloid Expressen said Majid was a member of Islamic State. The news agency TT and newspaper Aftonbladet both quoted anonymous sources as saying he is part of a bigger group of accomplices currently in or on their way to Sweden. A police spokesman would not comment on the report.

Police raised their presence at public and strategic locations around the country, including government buildings, foreign embassies and some media outlets.

Fewer people than normal were using trains and subways in the capital.

“I don’t recognise my Stockholm,” Camilla Kvartoft, a news anchor at public television station SVT, tweeted.

The president of Sweden’s council of Jewish communities, Lena Posner Korosi, said evening activities such as sports training for youths were cancelled in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo after discussions with police.

Over the last few years, Sweden has participated in NATO missions in Afghanistan and is training Kurdish forces in Iraq, moves that have changed its traditional image of neutrality.

In Rome, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said security forces were working to identify five people suspected of planning possible attacks.

The U.S. Embassy in Rome said in a message to its citizens that big tourist sites, churches, synagogues, restaurants, theatres and hotels in Italy’s two main cities might be targets.

It urged Americans to be vigilant as militant groups “may possibly utilise similar methods used in the recent Paris attacks“. There was no suggestion from authorities that the threat encompassed plans for a specific attack.

Gentiloni said Italy was ready to help its “French brothers” in the fight against Islamic State but rejected the possibility of the Western coalition sending ground troops into Syria.

“No one is going to put boots on the ground in Syria, not (French President Francois) Hollande, nor Obama, nor us,” he said.

Like much of Europe, Italy is reluctant to join France and the United States in conducting air strikes over Syria because, without an express request from a government it recognises, it considers the legal justification uncertain.

GERMANY THREAT

Germany’s Bild said it had obtained a copy of a document by the domestic intelligence service that detailed how attackers planned to set off several explosives in the stadium in Hanover, as well as a bomb in the city centre, during Tuesday’s international football match. Chancellor Angela Merkel had been due to attend the game, which was called off.

The attackers planned to smuggle the explosives into the stadium in an ambulance, Bild cited the document as saying. After midnight, another attack was planned at Hanover railway station.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told a news conference: “The indications were so concentrated that calling off the match was unavoidable. Whether the indications were a real threat, or just an indication, we don’t know.”

In the event, the authorities said they found no explosives at the stadium.

Meanwhile European Union interior ministers are to agree on Friday to tighten checks at the external borders of the passport-free Schengen area to boost security after the Paris attacks, a draft document seen by Reuters showed.

Ministers will agree to “implement immediately the necessary systematic and coordinated checks at external borders, including on individuals enjoying the right of free movement”, the draft conclusions of their meeting says.

The document reflects France’s request to strengthen controls at the external borders of the 26-nation Schengen area, of which most EU countries are members.

美警告 梵蒂岡、米蘭成恐攻目標

恐怖攻擊陰影籠罩全歐洲，多國發出恐攻警告並逮捕可疑分子，美國政府發函給在義大利的美國公民，提醒不要前往梵蒂岡、米蘭大教堂等地標；法國總理瓦爾向國會報告時指出，法國可能遭到生化武器攻擊。

瓦爾說：「我們不能排除任何可能性，也有化學或生物武器攻擊的風險。」他呼籲歐盟國家採取分享搭機乘客資料的緊急措施。

梵蒂岡十二月將有盛典，全球天主教徒聚集，成為可能被攻擊目標。美國聯邦調查局（FBI）已警告義大利，並點名梵蒂岡聖伯多祿大教堂、米蘭大教堂可能為聖戰士目標；美國已發函通知住在義大利的美國公民，提醒別前往這些地方，並警告羅馬和米蘭的其他教堂、劇院、餐廳和飯店也可能遭到攻擊，但未建議國民避免前往義大利。

義大利接獲FBI線報後，正在搜尋5名可疑分子。

瑞典安全單位18日開記者會宣布，已獲得瑞典可能遭到恐攻的「具體情資」，正在搜捕一名「策畫恐怖行動」的通緝要犯。

這名嫌犯名為瑪伊德（Mutar Muthanna Majid），他的照片已傳給全國的警察。媒體刊出一名留著鬍子、面帶笑容的年輕男子照片。

警方發言人證實：「我們正在找照片中的人」。

瑞典公共電視台引述警方消息人士說法，這名嫌犯原籍伊拉克，約廿五歲。小報「快訊」指出，他是「伊斯蘭國」（IS）成員。

比利時警方十九日一早又在莫倫貝克等地發動六次搜索，媒體報導，仍有涉及巴黎恐攻案者疑似待在當地。莫倫貝克居民十八日晚間發起為巴黎恐攻受難者點燈祈禱活動，希望洗刷當地被視為聖戰士的歐洲首都惡名。十八日在巴黎北郊聖丹尼的槍戰中，引爆自殺背心而亡的聖戰新娘，疑似原本也住在莫倫貝克。

另外，IS發布新影片，鎖定紐約市為攻擊目標，特別是時報廣場。紐約警方表示，並沒有「立即和特定」的威脅。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/11/19/world/europe/19reuters-france-shooting-europe.html

2015-11-20．聯合報．A3．焦點．布魯塞爾記者蕭白雪、編譯田思怡