“A senior diplomatic official from the region tells The Washington Times that Croatian intelligence has identified a possible Islamic State leader who is setting up in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina and beginning to organize scores of Islamist fighters who left the Balkans to join the Islamic State or al Qaeda’s Nusra Front in war-torn Syria and Iraq and have since returned home.” They shouldn’t be allowed to return home. Their going and joining such groups should be considered an act of treason, as those groups are at war with the Balkans and everywhere else.
“Islamic State plotting to infiltrate, destabilize Balkans, intelligence suggests,” by John Solomon, Washington Times, November 5, 2015:
As Croatian voters go to the polls Sunday to potentially unseat remnants of the country’s communist past, there is growing intelligence that the Islamic State may be setting its eye on infiltrating and destabilizing the Balkans.
A senior diplomatic official from the region tells The Washington Times that Croatian intelligence has identified a possible Islamic State leader who is setting up in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina and beginning to organize scores of Islamist fighters who left the Balkans to join the Islamic State or al Qaeda’s Nusra Front in war-torn Syria and Iraq and have since returned home.
“We have identified a possible Islamic State leader for the region and are monitoring the jihadist fighters returning to the Balkans, and there is much to be concerned about,” said the official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing sensitive intelligence.
The concerns have been exacerbated by the refugee crisis sweeping Europe, which has security officials in the Balkans worried that an Islamic State sleeper cell could slip into the region disguised as Syrian refugees seeking asylum.
The official noted that a video that surfaced in June from the propaganda arm of the Islamic State showcased numerous Balkan fighters in Syria and threatened jihad in the Balkans.
The video made reference to the U.S.-led war against Serbia in 1990s and urged Islamists in the Balkans to join the fight in Syria or to wage attacks on their home soil. “Plant bombs under cars, explode houses, poison them, kill them everywhere,” a fighter in the tape declared, according to a rough English translation.
With a large Muslim population and a weak economy that leaves young, poor men vulnerable to radicalization, the Balkans region is experiencing growing fears that terrorism may be breeding among its civilian population.
“The threat is real, and the region is a potential tinderbox for radicalization,” the Balkan diplomatic official said….