2014 Norway terror threat

Last updated

On 24 July 2014, a suspected imminent terror attack by Islamic extremists targeting Norway was disclosed by Norwegian authorities. The suspected plot prompted a public terror alert announcement and unprecedented short-term security measures being introduced in Norway in late July. [1]

Contents

Public announcement

On 24 July, Minister of Justice Anders Anundsen and the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) went public with information of a suspected imminent terror attack targeting Norway, said to be planned to strike "within days". [2] [3] [4] [5] The date of the suspected attack was reported by news outlets as 28 July, the date of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr marking the end of Ramadan. [6] PST confirmed that the suspected terrorists were a group of Syrian Civil War jihadists believed to have already departed Syria. [6]

The threat resulted in numerous public buildings including the Oslo City Hall and the Royal Palace being closed, and increased security being introduced at the borders. [1] The Jewish museums in Oslo and Trondheim decided to close with concerns of being a target following the Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting two months earlier. [7] Armed police were stationed at airports, train stations and border crossings, and security measures were strengthened at public events such as the Norway Cup. [7] [8]

On 31 July Norwegian authorities said that the threat had been reduced and they cancelled the security measures introduced on 24 July. [9] Although not confirmed by PST, the security measures and public announcement were speculated to have averted the terror attack. [10] [11]

Analysis

Reports later surfaced that according to the information gathered, at least three to four known jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had planned a terror attack with specific mentions of Norway as a main target. [10] The jihadists were said to be of European origin, and to have Norwegian travel documents. [12] The last known trace of the jihadists was reported to have been their arrival in Athens, the jihadists having been observed at the airport in the city. [9]

News outlets later reported that two main suspected plots included jihadists from ISIL either being thought to have planned to attack large gatherings of people with knives, or to have planned to enter a private home and killing a random family, filming the killings and publishing the video online. The latter plot was compared to the beheading-filming plot that was the background for the 2014 Australian counter-terrorism raids that occurred around the same time of the reports. [12] [13]

According to official statistics, 165,000 people were controlled at Norwegian airports, sea ports and border crossings during the heightened security measures in late July. The controls resulted in seventeen people being denied entry to Norway, eight people being expelled from the country, and five people arrested with suspected ties to the plot. [14]

Aftermath

In November later the same year a majority of political parties agreed to temporarily arm police due to PST deeming the general terror threat in Norway to be heightened (police officers do not normally carry firearms in Norway, which are locked in patrol cars). The temporary arming of police was cancelled in February 2016, after first being cancelled by the National Police Directorate (POD) after PST had deemed the terror threat reduced just hours before the November 2015 Paris attacks. [15] [16] The Norwegian Police Federation and Minister of Justice Anders Anundsen disagreed with the decision and continue to advocate permanent arming of the police. [17] [18] [19] Police in Oslo again introduced temporary arming of the police and increased patrols after the 2016 Brussels bombings on 22 March, lasting until 27 March. [20] [21] Opinion polling has shown that a clear majority of Norwegians want continued temporary arming of the police, with the public divided in the middle on making the arming permanent. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anders Anundsen</span> Norwegian politician

Anders Anundsen is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party who served as Minister of Justice from 2013 to 2016. He was also a member of the Norwegian parliament, representing Vestfold from 2005 to 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008–2009 Oslo riots</span> Anti-Jewish riots perpetrated mainly by Muslim youth in Norway during the Gaza War

On 29 December 2008, violent riots first broke out in Oslo, Norway amid protests against the Gaza War, starting outside the Israeli embassy. Riots broke out again following a protest on 4 January 2009, while the most violent and destructive riots took place on 8 and 10 January when riots spread throughout the city with widespread destruction of private and public property, clashes between rioters and police with several injuries, as well as attacks on civilians, including individuals targeted due to being thought by rioters to be Jews. Around 200 people were arrested in total, mainly Muslim youth, supported by left-wing autonomous Blitz activists.

Stop Islamisation of Norway is a Norwegian anti-Muslim group that was established in 2008, although its history goes back to a group started in 2000. Its stated aim is to work against Islam, which it defines as a totalitarian political ideology that violates the Norwegian Constitution as well as democratic and human values. The organisation was formerly led by Arne Tumyr, and has several thousand members and supporters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janne Kristiansen</span> Norwegian jurist

Janne Kristiansen is a Norwegian jurist. She was the first head of the Criminal Cases Review Commission from 2004 to 2009. and head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) from 2009 to 2012, a position from which she resigned following a heavily politicized scandal.

Mohyeldeen Mohammad is an Iraqi-Norwegian Islamist, and political activist associated with the fundamentalist Profetens Ummah group. He became a controversial figure in Norway after stating that the country is at war with Muslims and warning the Norwegian people with an 11 September happening on Norwegian soil. Since then, his media profile has risen following a series of statements regarding Norway, homosexuality and Islamism. He was formerly a Sharia student at the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia, until he was deported from the country in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 Norway attacks</span> Two domestic terrorist attacks in Norway on 22 July 2011

The 2011 Norway attacks, referred to in Norway as 22 July or as 22/7, were two domestic terrorist attacks by far right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp, in which a total 77 people were killed.

Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami is a jihadist group that came to international attention in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 Norway attacks, when it was reported that the group had claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The 2011 Norway attacks were a bombing in Oslo and a series of shootings at Utøya on Friday, 22 July 2011. The first attack was a bomb exploding in Regjeringskvartalet, the executive government quarter of Oslo, and the second an attack on a youth camp organized by the youth organization (AUF) of the Norwegian Labour Party (AP) on the island of Utøya in Tyrifjorden, Viken.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Profetens Ummah</span> Islamist organisation based in Norway

Profetens Ummah is a Salafi-jihadist Islamist organisation based in Norway. Since its emergence in late 2011 the group has become notorious for its vocal demonstrations, as well as statements praising Islamic terrorism. Other Muslims in Norway have referred to the group as a Khariji sect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Valdresekspressen hijacking</span>

The 2013 Valdresekspressen hijacking was a hijacking of an express bus running on the Nor-Way Bussekspress Valdresekspressen route, which took place east of Øvre Årdal on 4 November 2013. The driver and both passengers were killed.

Terrorism in Norway includes a list of major terrorist incidents where organized groups and lone wolves have tried carrying out attacks. In recent years, there has been a rise mostly of Islamic extremism and far-right violence and various groups have been suspected of terrorism plans.

Arslan Ubaydullah Maroof Hussain is a Norwegian former spokesperson of the Salafi-jihadist group Profetens Ummah. He has been arrested since December 2015, convicted for recruitment of jihadist foreign fighters, and for membership of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow was a Norwegian-Somalian Islamist terrorist and Al-Shabaab-member who was one of four perpetrators of the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya that killed 67 people.

The 2010 Norway terror plot was a Norway-based plan to bomb the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and to kill the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. Two men with links to Al-Qaeda were convicted for the plot, while a third person was acquitted for terror charges.

Mikael Davud is a Chinese-Norwegian Al-Qaeda operative convicted for conspiracy to commit terror against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, along with co-conspirator Shawan Bujak. Arrested in 2010, Davud was sentenced to eight years imprisonment in 2013.

Anders Cameroon Østensvig Dale, also known as Muslim Abu Abdurrahman and Abu Abdurrahman the Norwegian, is a Norwegian Yemen-based terrorist associated with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). As of Q1 2022, he is in detention in Yemen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emilie Enger Mehl</span> Norwegian politician (born 1993)

Emilie Enger Mehl is a Norwegian politician for the Centre Party. She has served as minister of justice since 2021 and Member of parliament for Hedmark since 2017.

Hans Sverre Sjøvold is a Norwegian civil servant and former police chief. He served as the director of the Norwegian Police Security Service from 2019 until his resignation in 2022 following an illegal weapons storage scandal. He had previously served as the Oslo Chief of Police from 2012 to 2019.

On 13 October 2021, a man attacked eight people with various weapons – including a bow and arrow – at locations in Kongsberg, Buskerud, Norway, a town about 70 kilometres (43 mi) southwest of the capital city Oslo. Five people were killed, and three others were injured. The accused, identified as Espen Andersen Bråthen, a 37-year-old Danish citizen born in Norway and with a history of mental illness, was taken into custody on the same day and charged with murder. Although he pleaded guilty, in June 2022, a court determined his mental illness meant he could not be held criminally responsible for his actions, and he was sentenced to psychiatric confinement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Oslo shooting</span> Mass shooting in Norway

On 25 June 2022, two people were killed and twenty-one people were wounded in a mass shooting in Oslo, Norway. Police are treating the incident as an "act of Islamist terrorism". The target may have been the Oslo LGBTQ pride event, which was hosted by the local branch of the Norwegian Organisation for Sexual and Gender Diversity.

References

  1. 1 2 "Day 2: Norway terror warnings". NTB/The Local. 25 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Levs, Josh (24 July 2014). "Norway expects Islamist terrorism attempt within 'a few days'". CNN.
  3. ↑ Molloy, Antonia (24 July 2014). "Norway warns of imminent 'concrete' terror threat". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01.
  4. ↑ Milne, Richard (24 July 2014). "Norway faces 'concrete and credible' terrorist threat". Financial Times.
  5. ↑ "Norway boosts security in Syria-linked terror alert". BBC News. 24 July 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Terror attack feared 'next Monday': TV2". NTB/The Local. 25 July 2014.
  7. 1 2 Mohsin, Saleha; Treloar, Stephen (26 July 2014). "Norway on High Alert Amid Warnings of Attack Next Week". Bloomberg.
  8. ↑ "Terrortrusselen: Fryktet drap på tilfeldig familie". Nettavisen (in Norwegian). 18 September 2014.
  9. 1 2 Hultgreen, Gunnar; Stang, Leif. "Mistet sporet av terroristene i Aten". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  10. 1 2 "Isis gang of four sparked Norway's terror alert". NTB/The Local. 28 August 2014.
  11. ↑ Mogen, Trym; Aas, Magnus Lutnæs (31 July 2014). "Terrortrusselen mot Norge redusert". Dagbladet (in Norwegian).
  12. 1 2 "Fryktet IS-terrorister skulle angripe nordmenn med kniv". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). 28 August 2014.
  13. ↑ "Terrortrusselen mot Norge: – Fryktet ekstremister skulle drepe tilfeldig familie hjemme" (in Norwegian). NRK. 18 September 2014.
  14. ↑ "165.000 ble terrorsjekket i sommer" (in Norwegian). VG/NTB. 14 November 2014.
  15. ↑ Norwegian Police Will No Longer Carry the Guns They Don’t Use, Foreign Policy, SIOBHÁN O'GRADY, 1 Feb 2016
  16. ↑ Norway gave its cops guns. After 1 year, it’s taking them away. What did it learn?, Washington Post, Adam Taylor, 5 Feb 2017
  17. ↑ "Midlertidig bevæpning av politiet opphører". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). 28 January 2016.
  18. ↑ "Anundsen ønsker omkamp om permanent bevæpning etter Paris-terror" (in Norwegian). NRK. 16 November 2015.
  19. ↑ "Norway disarms its police officers". Yahoo News/AFP. 13 November 2015.
  20. ↑ "Oslo-politiet bevæpner samtlige patruljer" (in Norwegian). NRK. 22 March 2016.
  21. ↑ "Avslutter politibevæpning i Oslo" (in Norwegian). NRK. 27 March 2016.
  22. ↑ "VG-måling: Nordmenn flest vil ha fortsatt bevæpnet politi". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). 17 November 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.