The State Department issued a new travel alert for Europe on Monday to warn Americans that the continent faces “the continued threat of terrorist attacks” throughout the summer.
“While local governments continue counterterrorism operations, the Department nevertheless remains concerned about the potential for future terrorist attacks,” the bulletin said. “U.S. citizens should always be alert to the possibility that terrorist sympathizers or self-radicalized extremists may conduct attacks with little or no warning.”
The travel alert covers the summer tourism season, before expiring on Sept. 1. It focuses especially on al Qaeda and the Islamic State, which is losing ground as a land-holding entity in Iraq and Syria will poses a longer term threat of individual attacks around the world.
“U.S. citizens should always be alert to the possibility that terrorist sympathizers or self-radicalized extremists may conduct attacks with little or no warning,” the State Department said. Extremists continue to focus on tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities as viable targets… U.S. citizens should exercise additional vigilance in these and similar locations, in particular during the upcoming summer travel season when large crowds may be common.”
A U.S.-led coalition is in the final stages of ousting ISIS from Iraq, where ISIS has been reduced to holding only part of Mosul, the nation’s second-largest city. In Syria, the coalition is preparing to besiege Raqqa, the chief stronghold of ISIS. But federal officials warn that taking those cities won’t end the threat.
“We all know, there will be a terrorist diaspora out of the caliphate as military force crushes the caliphate,” FBI Director James Comey said during a congressional hearing last year. “Those thousands of fighters are going to go someplace. Our job is to spot them and stop them before they come to the United States to harm innocent people.”
