Basel terrorist plot uncovered

According to various media reports, fuel tanks at a port in Basel were at the heart of an attack planned for this January by the so called Islamic State, reported the newspaper 20 Minutes.

Files describing the plan, designed to trigger “economic disaster”, were discovered on a hard disk left behind by IS members during a battle in Syria, according the Sunday Times. The disk also contained a photograph of the target.

The hard drive also contained a letter addressed to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, signed by six other IS leaders, setting out the group’s new strategy of operations, which include vehicle rammings, bank robberies, computer hacking and assassinations in Europe.

Why the Basel attack never happened is unclear. A spokesperson from Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service told the newspaper 24 Heures that it had no additional information on the content of these documents or the potential attacks.

Another operation targeting a high-speed train in Germany was also mentioned in the documents. Shortly after the December letter to IS the leader, an IS flag was found near train tracks in Berlin where overhead wires had been damaged, according to the Sunday Times.

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