Major European cities are experiencing a wave of devastating terrorist attacks,
highlighting the continuing threat extremists pose to Europe and the r


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Wave Of Terror Attacks In Austria And France Rock Europe

(New York, N.Y.) - Major European cities are experiencing a wave of
devastating terrorist attacks, highlighting the continuing threat extremists
pose to Europe and the rest of the international community.

 

Vienna was the latest city targeted on the evening of November 2, when a
gunman wearing a fake explosive vest and armed with an automatic rifle, a
handgun, and a machete attacked the city center, including areas busy with
people in bars and restaurants as well as outside the Seitenstettengasse
synagogue. Police identified the assailant as 21-year-old Austrian-North
Macedonian dual citizen Kujtim Fejzulai, who had previously been convicted for
attempting tojoin ISIS
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but was released early after serving only part of his 22-month sentence. The
assault, which Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described as “clearly an Islamic
terror attack,” began the night beforeAustria
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coronavirus lockdown, with bars and restaurants closing for a month at midnight.
ISIS <[link removed]> claimed responsibility the
following day through its Amaq News Agency. Amaq circulated a picture of the
alleged attacker, whom they called “Abu Dagnah Al-Albany.”

 

The Vienna attack comes on the heels of a knife attack
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at the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice, France, on October 29 that left three
dead, including one beheaded victim and another with a slit throat. The assault
in Nice occurred at the hands of a Tunisian-born extremist one day after ISIS
released a video
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titled, “Defend him [Prophet Muhammad] by striking [their] heads,” on
Telegram. In the video an ISIS operative urges followers to use violence and
cut off heads in revenge for the French government’s stance on allowing the
publication of controversial cartoons featuring the Islamic prophet. The
statement was released following French satirical magazineCharlie Hebdo’s
republication of cartoons featuring Muhammad and the October 16 attack in which
an ISIS sympathizer decapitated French teacher Samuel Paty for showing the
caricatures in class as part of a lesson on free speech.

 

France <[link removed]> has experienced a
series of deadly terrorist attacks in recent years, including the May 2019
explosion near a bakery in Lyon, the December 2018 shooting at a Christmas
market in Strasbourg, the March 2018 attack in Carcassonne, the July 2016
Bastille Day attack in Nice, the November 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris, and the
January 2015Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket attacks. Since 2015, more than
240 people have been killed in France by people claiming allegiance to or
inspiration from ISIS, spurring France to adopt a variety of preemptive and
reactive counterterrorism measures.

 

To read CEP’s Austria resource, please click here
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To read CEP’s France resource, please click here
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To read CEP’s ISIS resource, please click here
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