The authorities say the country, along with Denmark and the Netherlands, has become a priority target for terrorists
FILE PHOTO: Police officers in Nykoping, Sweden. © Michael Campanella / Getty Images
Sweden, as well as Denmark and the Netherlands, now top the priority lists of several terrorist groups, Magnus Sjoberg, the head of the counterterrorism department at the country’s Security Police, warns. The high threat level in the three nations is linked to a series of Quran-burning stunts, the official explained.
Speaking to Sweden’s TT news agency on Wednesday, Sjoberg revealed that the security services had seen communications from within several terrorist organizations regarding the three European states, adding that the threat has now become “more tangible.”
However, he noted that while the Swedish police have considerably improved their counterterrorism expertise in recent years, “none of us can guarantee that there won’t be an attack.”
According to Sweden’s Expressen, a bomb was hurled toward the entrance of the Swedish Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon overnight. The device reportedly failed to detonate.
The newspaper, citing local police sources, claimed that that the attempted attack was linked to the latest string of Quran-burning stunts in Sweden.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom tweeted that “it was pure luck that no one was hurt.”
As recently as late July, a pair of Christian Iraqi immigrants stomped on a copy of the Quran and set fire to some of the pages in front of the Swedish parliament building.
The couple had previously staged similar controversial performances twice.
The latest stunt saw an outcry from a number of Muslim-majority nations, with Iraq kicking out the Swedish ambassador and recalling its own representative from Stockholm. Several others summoned Swedish ambassadors in protest as well.
Commenting on the Quran-burning protests in Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson warned in July that these acts have resulted “in the most serious security policy situation” for the country “since the Second World War.”
The official also expressed concern over the seemingly never-ending stream of applications for similar stunts to the police, which the authorities can only turn down under certain circumstances by law.
