AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW Introduction On 13 November 2015, IS gunmen and suicide bombers descended on Paris, launching simultaneous th th attacks in multiple locations, outside the Stade de France, in the 10 and 11 arrondissements, and at the 1 Bataclan concert hall, killing 130 and wounding hundreds. On 22 March 2016, what remained of the network behind the Paris attacks successfully launched another mass-casualty attack in Brussels, detonating suicide bombs in the Zaventem international airport and the Maelbeek metro station, killing 2 32 and wounding many more. As more information became available on the network of attackers, accomplices, facilitators, financiers and planners behind the attacks in IS, the extent of the threat posed by such a large network became apparent. Belgian terrorism expert Pieter Van Ostaeyen stated that he believed the cell to be larger than 3 previously thought, with “potentially (…) at least another 60 to 70 members”. In the wake of the attacks, 4 it was suggested that the attackers were a “new type of jihadist: part terrorist, part gangster”, and that Europe faced a different threat to the one it had faced previously. This report seeks to examine that proposition, profiling the members of the networks behind the Paris and Brussels attacks, as well as a number of individuals connected to the attackers through recruitment networks, logistics provision, and operational direction from Syria. It compares this network to a similar network linked to al-Qaeda which existed across Europe from the late 1990s to the early 2000s which included a number of cells planning mass-casualty attacks and a wider recruitment network. Following this comparison, it identifies the similarities and differences between the two groups and seeks to understand the reasons behind the greater success of the IS-linked networks which struck Europe during 2015 and 2016. ! ! 1 ‘Paris attacks: What happened on the night’, BBC News, 9 December 2015, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34818994, last visited: 9 August 2016. 2 ‘Brussels explosions: What we know about airport and metro attacks’, BBC News, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35869985, last visited: 9 August 2016. 3 ‘Brussels bombings: Two more charged with ‘terrorist murder’’, BBC News, 12 April 2016, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36023432, last visited: 9 August 2016. 4 Faiola, A. and Souad Mekhennet, ‘The Islamic State creates a new type of jihadist: Part terrorist, part gangster’, The Washington Post, 20 December 2015, available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-islamic-state-creates-a-new-type-of-jihadist-part-terrorist-part-gangster/2015/12/20/1a3d65da-9bae- 11e5-aca6-1ae3be6f06d2_story.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. ! ! 5 !