Still a realistic chance of terror attack in the Netherlands, security coordinator warns

There is still a realistic chance of a terrorist attack occurring in the Netherlands, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) reported on Tuesday in the half-yearly report on this matter. Previous concerns were repeated in the report, including that young people can be quickly radicalized online by right-extremist and jihadist groups.

The NCTV puts all the terroristic threats in a row In the Dreigingsbeeld Terrorisme Nederland and then bases the threat level on this. This can be as low as level one (minimal) to level five (critical). The threat level is currently at level four.

NCTV investigators have seen that jihadists are also active online in the Netherlands. These are usually networks of young men. The risk is that one of these or a small group becomes involved in terroristic attacks. The NCTV is also seeing similar developments from right-wing extremist groups.

On the other hand, the threat from older jihadist networks of people who meet each other physically is decreasing. The threat to Europe from Syrian and Somali branches of the terrorist group ISIS also seems to have decreased for the time being, although it has not disappeared. The Chechen and Dagestan branch of ISKP is still attempting to carry out attacks in Europe.

Loners who are inspired by ISIS are also still a threat. They often commit attacks that result in plenty of casualties despite being simple to perform.

A different possible threat is from the anti-institution movement, which believes that an evil elite group is conspiring together against regular civilians. According to the NCTV, this group also contains certain individuals who are prepared to use violence.

Sovereign citizens are an important subgroup of this, the NCTV said. These are people who have turned away from society and the democratic rule of law. Several arrests of sovereign citizens were made last week, with guns and ammunition being found during the arrests.

The NCTV also reported that they have discovered that extremists from anti-institutional groups and right-wing extremist groups have also been in contact with Russia. The investigators have said that this is a threat but that the impact on the Netherlands is limited as of now.