ISIS cell that bombed Paris and Brussels 'ordered to attack football championships'

Mohamed Abrini, a 31-year-old member of the group who was captured last week, has told police that the sporting event was a major target. The ISIS cell that murdered 162 people in Paris and Brussels was ordered to attack the Euro 2016 football championships in France, it has been claimed.
 
Mohamed Abrini, a 31-year-old terrorist captured last week, has told police that the sporting event was a major target. The revelation will strike fear into millions of football fans - including thousands from England, Wales, and Ireland - preparing to travel to the tournament in France this summer.
"It’s not a scoop to learn that the terrorists want to strike during the Euros," a police source told Liberation newspaper.
"Security forces constantly develop attack scenarios and the way to respond."
"If the Abrini statements are correct, it just confirms the fact that Belgium is an operational base that needs to be watched even more intensely. Jihadi networks and cells have been meeting there for at least ten years."
Abrini, a Belgian Moroccan, was arrested on Friday following almost five month on the run since the November 13th attacks on Paris, in which 130 people died.
He was also the ‘man in the hat’ who accompanied suicide bombers to Brussels airport last month, as part of an operation that saw 32 killed in the Belgium capital.
Belgian prosecutors revealed at the weekend how the Isis terror cell intended to launch a fresh strike in France, but attacked Brussels instead after being ‘surprised’ by a quick-moving investigation.
 
Prosecutors did not reveal any details about the planned attack on France, but Abrini has now apparently filled in the gaps, saying that all orders came from the ISIS caliphate in Syria.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "It's extra proof of the very high threats to the whole of Europe and to France in particular. We will not let our guard down."
Earlier this month, the French staged a mock terrorist chemical attack in preparation for the football championships.
 
The Stade de France, which will host the final of Euro 2016, was a target of suicide bombers during the international friendly match between France and Germany last November.
Extra security checks have since been put in place at stadiums across Europe, and they will be even more stringent when the tournament gets underway on Friday, June 10th.
More than 2.5 million fans are predicted to attend matches in ten host cities with a further seven million expected in fan zones during the competition.
England’s first came is against Russia in Marseille on June 11th.

Mirror