The nightmare of the salafist tide is haunting the Europeans, and the specter of suicide bombers and «jihadist» is hovering above their streets.

Elie Hanna - Al-Akhbar

The nightmare of the salafist tide is haunting the Europeans, and the specter of suicide bombers and «jihadist» is hovering above their streets. This will not be visible to any visiting guest in the old continent, where people live without being disturbed by what is happening on the other side of the Mediterranean.

However, their intelligence services are obsessed with the danger coming from the East with every progress achieved by the 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' organization, and with every European 'Jihadist' who leaves his country for «jihad» under the banner of radical Islam.
Speaking to Al-Akhbar daily, European officers expert in counter-terrorism do not hesitate to say that it is "just a matter of time" before an explosion goes off in a European capital, or a sleeper terrorist cell wakes up in a European capital.

They consider the American 'Abu Huraira', the Belgian 'Abu Hamza', and the two German 'Abu Talha' and 'Abu Luqman' are samples of the hundreds of Western 'jihadists' who joined the Jihad in Syria and Iraq who are "ticking bombs" that their hard-line organization may task them at any time to carry out operations in their home countries, recalling the bombings photos in London and Madrid, and others nearly a decade ago.

"Americans are stupid. They and their obedient British allies bear the responsibility for what they call Creative Chaos besetting the Middle East. They underestimate the implications of this fire raging in Europe, which is geographically in the heart of imminent danger."

"We may say that Washington is plotting to Europe, albeit unintentionally!" the intelligence officers, among them a German, said as they were reviewing the hot world events in good Arabic accent.

Starting from the conflict in Ukraine "fueled by the United States with limited economic repercussions on the countries of Europe, since sanctions on Russia led to a rise in the price of Russian gas, and to imposing sanctions on European and western companies", they talked overlooking the growth of the Salafist tide in the Middle East under the banner of toppling dictatorships.

The threat posed by 'jihadists' in Europe is significant. The number of European 'jihadists' who joined the fight under the banner of 'Islamic state' is not final yet. The German intelligence officer estimated the number by two thousand young men, while source of European intelligence apparatus confirmed the number by "more than four thousand, but not more than seven thousand."

Whatever the exact number is, what concerns intelligence services is the success of 'Islamic state' in attracting more western young people, depending on high media professionalism via broadcasting speeches in several languages (Arabic, English, French, Russian and Persian).

This question occupies the top priorities of the European intelligence services, which are engaged in the search for the agents who facilitate the transition of young people affected by the ISIL ideology to fight in Syria and Iraq. They are looking for the financier, recruiter and mediator.

For a moment, you almost feel that they do not care for "jihadists immigrants to the house of Islam" as much as they care for every piece of information that may lead to the detection of one of the four men mentioned above. They follow each young man whose family acknowledge of his disappearance, and place the family under tight control."

The scene does not get complete without mentioning Hezbollah. A European intelligence officer agree on the "pre-emptive war" waged by the party, pointing out that «if it (Hezbollah) did not enter Syria, Lebanon would be trapped."

"More than that, if Hezbollah did not get involved in the battle, it should get involved now."

But wait, isn't Hezbollah the same party that is inscribed on European black list? The shocking answer comes from the speaking officer: "Hezbollah is fighting a battle against terrorism on behalf of the world, so it must be supported, at least in this confrontation".

"I can say today that the party (Hezbollah) fighters are defending Europe," he added.

Answering a question on whether this means that there is cooperation between these services and Hezbollah?

"We are ready to cooperate if necessary," the officer replied smiling.