Europe fears ISIS New Year attacks; Turkey detains 2 suspects

Two Belgian police officers guard the Grand Place with its illuminated buildings in Brussels, Belgium, on Nov. 27, 2015. Brussels canceled its New Year festivities and fireworks amid concern that Islamic terrorists would attack during the revelry. AP

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish police on Wednesday detained two Islamic State suspects accused of plotting to attack New Year’s Eve celebrations, as jittery European capitals readied to see in 2016 under tight security.

In a sign of the widespread anxiety just weeks after the deadly Paris terror assaults, Brussels canceled its festivities and fireworks, while Moscow said it would close off Red Square to the public.

Paris itself announced that 11,000 police, soldiers and firefighters would be patrolling the French capital, where the annual fireworks display on the Champs-Elysees had also been called off.

In Turkey meanwhile, officials said the two detained men, reportedly both Turks, were planning to stage suicide bombings in the centre of the capital Ankara that is expected to be packed with revellers on the night of December 31.

“They are suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State and were planning an attack on the New Year in Ankara,” a Turkish official told AFP, asking not to be named.

Turkey has been on a high security alert since October 10 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of peace activists in Ankara, killing 103 people in the worst attack in the country’s modern history.

According to the private NTV television, counter-terrorism police arrested the pair in the Mamak district on the outskirts of the capital, which is home to more than five million people.

The two were planning to stage an attack in Ankara’s main Kizilay square, the Anatolia news agency reported, citing the prosecutor’s office.

The suspects, identified as M.C. and A.Y., had already carried out surveillance on potential targets, according to the Ankara governor’s office.

They had planned to strike two spots in Kizilay — one outside a big shopping mall and the second in a street packed with pubs.

Police also confiscated one suicide bomb vest, one bomb mechanism with ball bearings and one rucksack with bomb-making materials, the governor’s office said.

Television footage showed police with bomb-sniffing dogs searching the building where the two men were caught and the surrounding area.

‘Turkey on frontline’

The October attack in Ankara was blamed on ISIS jihadists, as were two other deadly strikes in the country’s Kurdish-dominated southeast earlier in the summer.

“Turkey is a target of terror because it is on the frontline in the fight against ISIS,” the Turkish official told AFP.

Earlier this month, police arrested an alleged member of the ISIS group suspected of planning a suicide attack on the US consulate in Istanbul.

Long criticized by its allies for taking too soft a line against jihadists, Turkey is taking firmer action against the ISIS group on the border with Syria after being shaken by attacks on its soil and the Paris assaults.

From Moscow to NY

In Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul, 15,000 police will be deployed to ensure security over the New Year, the city’s deputy police security chief Zafer Baybaba said.

European capitals have also beefed up security after the coordinated attacks in Paris which left 130 dead on November 13.

In Belgium, police arrested two people suspected of plotting attacks in Brussels during New Year festivities, the federal prosecutor’s office said earlier this week, adding that police had also seized military-style training uniforms, computer hardware and Islamic State propaganda material.

And in a sign of how serious the authorities were taking the terror threat in a city already on high alert after the Paris attacks, Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur said late Wednesday that the annual festivities and fireworks in the heart of the capital had been cancelled.

“It’s better not to take any risks,” he said.

Paris said it would stick to its traditional celebrations on the famous Champs-Elysees, but without the fireworks, and 1,600 police would be deployed on the famous avenue as part of a contingent of 11,000 security personnel watching over the French capital, 2,000 more than last year.

Austrian police said Saturday they had stepped up security in Vienna and other cities after receiving a warning of possible attacks during the holiday season.

And Moscow’s Red Square, traditionally a place where people gather to ring in the New Year, will be closed to revellers on December 31 amid mounting security concerns, city authorities said.

In New York City, where one million people pack into Times Square every year, officials said that 6,000 officers, some plainclothes, would be on hand to watch over celebrations.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday said the security measures this year would be “more extensive than ever”.

“We’ll have a huge number of police out on New Year’s Eve, including a lot of our new anti-terror force, the Critical Response Command. That’s 500-plus officers… who are specialised in preventing terror,” he said.