Federal police in Brazil have ordered the detention of 12 people who allegedly pledged allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) via social media and discussed possible attacks during the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, officials said on Thursday. Justice minister Alexandre de Moraes said in the capital, Brasilia,
that 10 suspects had been arrested and two more were being sought. All
12 are Brazilian and one is a minor. The genders of those involved were
not specified.
Police acted because the group discussed the use of weapons and
guerrilla tactics to potentially launch an attack during the Olympics,
which begins on August 5, Mr de Moraes said.
Soldiers patrol inside Galeao International Airport ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games in RioCredit:
Dado Galdieri
"They were complete amateurs and ill-prepared" to actually launch at
attack, Mr de Moraes said. "A few days ago they said they should start
practising martial arts, for example."
However, Mr de Moraes said even disorganised groups should be taken seriously.
The arrests were made in 10 different states, including Sao Paulo and
Parana. Mr de Moraes said there were no specific targets for an attack.
Last week, the top military aide
of Brazil's interim government said the concerns with terrorism had
"reached a higher level" after the attacks of six days ago in Nice,
France.
The alert was raised earlier this month when Isil created a
Portuguese channel on Telegram, the highly encrypted messaging app,
indicating it was aiming propaganda at Brazil in the run-up to the Games.
Since then, security services in Brazil have issued reassurances that there has been no threat of an attack identified.
But security preparations have been heightened in the wake of the Nice attack, which killed 84 people.
FAQ
| Islamic State (Isil, Isis, Daesh)
What is Isil? An Islamist extremist group controlling territory in Syria and Iraq What is it called? In the West, the group is usually
known as Isil (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) or Isis (Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria). The militants said they wanted to simply be
called Islamic State in recognition of the self-declared caliphate What about 'Daesh'? Daesh is an abbreviation Dawlat
al-Islamiyah f'al-Iraq wa al-Sham, and is the derogatory name used by
many Muslims for Isil. Following the Paris attacks, the French
government is now using this term What are its aims? A worldwide Islamic caliphate - a religious government without borders What terror attacks has it carried out? Isil has
claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks of 13 November 2015, the
explosion of a plane travelling from Egypt to Russia, and the individual
killings of Western hostages, including James Foley and Alan Henning Where is it based? Isil's HQ is in the city of Raqqa, Syria
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