Islamic State could launch attacks on hero coronavirus medics to inflict maximum terror in pandemic

ISIS could launch sickening attacks on hero coronavirus medics, an EU chief has warned.

Extremists could use the chilling new tactic to inflict maximum terror in a horrifying new dimension to the pandemic, Gilles de Kerchove said.

The EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator issued the warning in a confidential briefing to EU member states.

He said ISIS and other extremists “could view attacks on medical personnel and facilities as highly effective, because they would generate a massive shock in society”.

De Kerchove explained: “Terrorists and violent extremists, aiming to change societies and governmental systems through violence, seek to exploit major crises to achieve their objectives.”

He noted that in the US, the FBI in March shot and killed a white supremacist who was plotting to blow up a hospital treating Covid-19 patients.

The anti-terror boss warned ISIS has already “incited its supporters in the West to take advantage of the current crisis to stage attacks”.

And he said terror groups are also ramping up their propaganda efforts to take advantage of the extra time many people are spending online.

Left-wing extremists were also trying to use the crisis in Europe to blame governments and the capitalist system as a whole, he warned.

It comes as ISIS is once again running rampant in Syria and Iraq – launching prison breaks and suicide bomb attacks.

The Islamic death cult was crushed last year when they were driven out of their last enclave in Baghuz in north eastern Syria.

But sleeper cells have regrouped under new leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi and are now taking advantage of outbreaks of Covid-19 in the region.

There are currently up to 3,000 ISIS fighters in Iraq and attacks have increased five-fold in the last month as half the country’s soldiers have been quarantined.

Officially, Iraq has recorded 115 deaths from 3,032 cases of Covid-19 – but the true figure is believed to be much higher given the country’s proximity to Iran which has endured the region’s worst outbreak.

Source: The Sun