Counter Terrorism: Country Reports - Europe (Counter Terrorism - Europe)

Counter Terrorism - Country Reports – Europe - U.S. State Department. Various terrorist groups continued to plot against European targets and interests in 2012, and the year was marked by several high-profile attacks. European security services continued their effective efforts to counter terrorism through close cooperation among countries and with the United States, and through the use of the sophisticated technical capabilities available to most partner states. Nonetheless, in March, before he was killed by police, “lone wolf” violent extremist gunman Mohammed Merah killed seven persons, including three children, in Toulouse and Mantauban, France before he was killed by police. In July, a terrorist attack carried out on a passenger bus in Bulgaria killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian citizen. During the same month Cypriot authorities arrested an individual suspected of plotting a similar attack in that country. On February 5, 2013, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Tsvetan Tsevtanov, publically linked Hizballah to the Burgas bombing. On March 21, 2013, a Cyprus court found a Hizballah operative guilty of charges stemming from his surveillance activities of Israeli tourist targets. A wide range of violent extremist ideologies remained a threat: anarchists in Greece continued to launch low-level attacks against government offices, private businesses, and symbols of the state, and long-active radical ethno-nationalist groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey continued their campaigns of violence. Of these groups, the deadliest was the PKK. According to the NATO Centre of Excellence-Defence Against Terrorism in Ankara, there were 226 terrorist incidents reported through November.